Forum Topic

Old discs contain sensitive data

The BBC reports that about half of the computer discs bought second hand contained data, and over 1 in 10 carried significant amounts of sensitive personal data. I assume that any old disc will have sectors that contain both clean original data and corrupted data due to a computer crash, so I zero the first few sectors which carry the Master Boot Record and then re-format using software that writes then reads a series of test patterns over the entire disc, overwriting every bit three or four times before leaving the disc clean apart from some new formatting data. It takes time, but all errors are reported. I can supply the free software that I use, together with simple instructions, if anyone wishes to securely wipe a disc before re-use.

Chris Bell ● 5095d2 Comments

I have been given a fair number of old discs including those still fitted in redundant computers now deemed too slow to run the latest versions of Microsoft but more than adequate for my purposes, and I get very few failures. They usually either show some errors on test because they have been dropped, or they appear to last for years. They are not used to carry irreplaceable data, I have had more failures of relatively new discs.

Chris Bell ● 5095d

Who on earth sells (or buys) secondhand computer disks? - surely a false economy. Safest to physically destroy them when finished with I would suggest.

Chris Veasey ● 5095d