Need Quickest Way to Wipe HDD

On Tue, 11 Jun 2019 15:46:58 -0500, "M. L."
wrote:

I want to assist a newbie with wiping the hard drive of an older legacy
computer (model unknown for now), but I want to relay all the
instructions over the phone. Security is of no importance at all. The
computer will not be re-used by anyone interested in HDD forensics. I'm
only interested in speed and ease-of-use, not security.

If the disk is old, then like automobiles a point is reached where
replacement with a new one is the economic and safe choice.

Keep the old one occasional for file transfers etc; or jush whack it
with a mash hammer.

On 2019-06-12 7:51 p.m., Poster wrote:
On Wed, 12 Jun 2019 05:52:32 -0000 (UTC), "Arlen G. Holder"
wrote:


Sledge hammer.....

I think the idea was to wipe the contents for reuse, Not destroy it.

Rene

On Thu, 13 Jun 2019 11:09:03 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:

If the disk is old, then like automobiles a point is reached where
replacement with a new one is the economic and safe choice.

Given car repair is cheap if you do it yourself, when exactly is a vehicle
"too old"?

Most cars nowadays handle 300K miles with aplomb for example.

If you swap out the engine, you can double that.

How many miles do you think you drive in your lifetime anyway?

Most people don't drive a million miles, so that's one car, three engines.

And if you think I don't know what I'm talking about then realize I do all
my own work, where, just as one example, this post recently shows that to
be the case...
o Clare - are smaller car tires easier to balance than SUV tires?
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.home.repair/So4om4fLtmI

Cars simply get cheaper to maintain the longer you keep them
o At least if you do all your own work they do.

On 13/06/2019 08.50, Arlen G. Holder wrote:
Cars simply get cheaper to maintain the longer you keep them
o At least if you do all your own work they do.

which most people don't. I don't.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On Thu, 13 Jun 2019 10:45:44 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

Cars simply get cheaper to maintain the longer you keep them
o At least if you do all your own work they do.

which most people don't. I don't.

Hi Carlos,

I _agree_ with you that most people likely do NOT work on their cars such that
they end up buying new cars so that they don't have to pay the expense of having
the old car repaired....

My main point on this buy-instead-of-fix trend is logically mathematical
o Fixing the old car yourself costs less than buying a new car (always)

NOTE: Fixing an old car yourself may not cost less than buying an old car of
similar value - which is a completely different equation than a new car.

Sure, many likely do trivial stuff like oil changes and tire rotations
o A lot also do other easy stuff like brakes & battery replacements

Fewer do the harder stuff like cooling system overhauls & suspension parts
o Or even replacing a starter motor (which is often harder than it appears)

Almost none, IMHO, do the half dozen "big" jobs that can turn out to be easily
done at home, but where most people are more 'afraid' than they are incapable.

What are those half dozen "big" jobs that most people need at some point, but
don't do at home?

I think these are "some" of the half dozen "big" jobs very few do at home...
1. Tire match mounting & static balancing (dynamic test is free)
2. Alignment check/adjust of caster, camber, & toe (easily done at home)
3. Transmission overhaul (e.g., manual clutch, or automatic rebuild)
4. Engine overhaul (needed at around 250K to 300K for most cars)
5. Body repair & painting (useful in some areas of the country)
6. ?

I've done all of those jobs at home, to some degree, where the tire mounting and
balancing I have set up as good as it can get, costing only $250 in additional
tools that people don't normally already have, which means that the tools paid
for themselves years ago, where there are only 3 main tools you need that you
don't already have in any reasonably well stocked garage...
o You need a dedicated bead breaker (less than fifty bucks at Harbor Freight)
o You need a dedicated tire changer (less than seventy-five bucks at HF)
o You need a static bubble balancer (less than seventy-five bucks at HF)

Since dynamic balance is easily checked for free everywhere in the world, and
since dynamic balance is almost as easily professionally done for five bucks per
wheel anywhere in the USA, there's really no good excuse, IMHO, for not
repairing, replacing, & mounting/balancing wheels & tires at home, IMHO.

Likewise with alignment checks, which, IMHO, should be done at about the same
schedule as your oil changes are done. It's so easy to do an alignment that it's
kind of sad how much tire wear is wasted due to lack of alignments done at home,
where I'm currently improving my alignment tool chest as we speak since all you
need for caster, camber, & toe alignment checks and changes is
o The ability to level the vehicle (plumb bobs, string & bubble levels work)
o The ability to measure wheel angle (special magnetic bubble gauges work fine)
o The ability to slide wheels (many redneck greased sandwiches work fine)

For a transmission overhaul such as replacing the clutch & diaphragm, pilot
bearing, flywheel, and throwout bearing and inner & outer oil seals and
transmission mounts, where, other than the tools you already likely have, the
only additional tools you need, which, as always, are free, are
o a transmission jack (less than $200 at Harbor Freight)
o 36-inch socket extensions (which you can build from smaller ones)

It has been a long time since I've done an engine overhaul (I did it as a kid on
a motorocycle), and just as long since I've painted a car that I can't, offhand,
go into the details here sufficiently summarized for accuracy.

In short, it's far less expensive, if you do the math, to just maintain one car
for your entire lifetime (or maybe two), than it is to buy a new car every five
or ten years, assuming a 50 year driving lifetime and assuming the car is a
decent car to start with (e.g., I wouldn't start with a pinto, nor with a
bimmer, but something in between, like, oh, perhaps a toyota).

Most people who claim otherwise are really just making up excuses for not liking
to work on cars (where it's ok to tell the truth but they can't seem to accept
the truth in why they don't do what they don't do).

Just watch, where EVERY argument anyone can come up with that says they "can't"
work on cars, assuming they have a garage and other tool basics, is bull****,
since the _real_ reason they don't work on cars is that they don't like to work
on cars (which is ok) - as long as they simply admit the truth.

It's fun to truly understand such things, by the way, where I've found, much
like Apple users, that most car owners don't actually make reasonable decisions
based on logical fact - they make up excuses and apologize for not being able to
do things that they really _can_ do - they just don't realize that they can.

On 6/11/2019 3:46 PM, M. L. wrote:
I want to assist a newbie with wiping the hard drive of an older legacy
computer (model unknown for now), but I want to relay all the
instructions over the phone. Security is of no importance at all. The
computer will not be re-used by anyone interested in HDD forensics. I'm
only interested in speed and ease-of-use, not security.

I'd like recommendations for the following:

* user-friendly bootable HDD wipe program ISO
* user-friendly portable Windows 10 ISO burner program

Is there a way she could connect the computer to her current Windows 10
computer for wiping?

I don't find DBAN to be user friendly and am hoping there are newer and
friendlier options with a GUI for wiping. Any other easy wipe methods
will be appreciated, but please do not digress into a discussion of
military wipe options that take a long time. A simple disk format will
suffice. Thanks.

Screwdriver and hammer. Hammer screwdriver into hard drive vent hole.
Remove screwdriver. Verify that disks are scratched and bent.

Lynn

On 14/06/2019 02:22, Lynn McGuire wrote:

Screwdriver and hammer. Hammer screwdriver into hard drive vent hole.
Remove screwdriver. Verify that disks are scratched and bent.



Presumably the OP will be able to reuse the hard disk after doing this.
Do you agree or not? He wanted to wipe the disk and then reuse it for
something else and your method seems to be easiest here!!









--
With over 950 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 13/06/2019 21.28, Arlen G. Holder wrote:
On Thu, 13 Jun 2019 10:45:44 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

Cars simply get cheaper to maintain the longer you keep them
o At least if you do all your own work they do.

which most people don't. I don't.

Hi Carlos,

I _agree_ with you that most people likely do NOT work on their cars such that
they end up buying new cars so that they don't have to pay the expense of having
the old car repaired....

My main point on this buy-instead-of-fix trend is logically mathematical
o Fixing the old car yourself costs less than buying a new car (always)

If you have the tools, the location, the knowledge.

NOTE: Fixing an old car yourself may not cost less than buying an old car of
similar value - which is a completely different equation than a new car.

Sure, many likely do trivial stuff like oil changes and tire rotations

Nope, we don't :-p

Oil: you need some place to discard the used oil, you can not just throw
it on the country. You can get fined for that.

Not mentioning about getting under the car in cramped spaces. I'm not
25, you know.

Tire rotations? Sure. But then, I need to go to some where to get the
front wheels balanced again. No win.

o A lot also do other easy stuff like brakes & battery replacements

Hard stuff like brakes, you mean! I tried once. I removed the wheel,
then didn't know how to continue.

Battery, sure.


But anyway, that is offtopic here :-p


--
Cheers, Carlos.

On Fri, 14 Jun 2019 09:56:10 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:

My main point on this buy-instead-of-fix trend is logically mathematical
o Fixing the old car yourself costs less than buying a new car (always)

If you have the tools, the location, the knowledge.

Hi Carlos,
a. The tools are always free.
b. The location is what 'most' people in suburban & rural USA have.
c. The knowledge is easier now than ever before, with the Internet.

Sure, many likely do trivial stuff like oil changes and tire rotations

Nope, we don't :-p

Hmmmmmm....

If someone can't even do an oil change or a tire rotation, then they are at
the mercy of mechanics and dealers (whom we call "stealers"), which means
they are paying so astronomically much for vehicle repair that any
calculation they make is tremendously skewed by artificially high
maintenance costs, which, in actuality, are trivial in cars (a few hundred
dollars a year over the lifetime of the vehicle).

An example is that a typical four wheel brake job, using OEM quality parts,
costs about $75 to $200 in parts (depending on whether it's just pads or
also pads and rotors/drums), where you can easily pay $1,000 at a stealer
for something as simple as a brake job.

The tools are always free.

Oil: you need some place to discard the used oil, you can not just throw
it on the country. You can get fined for that.

It always amazes me what stories people concoct out of their own minds for
why they can't do something simple, just as it amazes me that Apple owners
tend to think you hate iOS if you tell the truth about an operating system.

*NOBODY dumps the oil, Carlos. Nobody.*

Here, in the USA, AFAIK, at least in California, every site that sells oil
is _required_ by law to accept the used oil back, just like everyone who
sells soda bottles is required to accept the refund back (caveats exist).

Plus, most recyclyers, like mine, are required to _accept_ the oil, where
they give you free containers to use which you leave next to the garbage
and recycling cans each week left by the curb on the street.

Even more so, most towns have a recycling depot, where you can drop off
used oil.

It's so _easy_ to recycle oil that nobody would even bother to dump it,
Carlos.

Not mentioning about getting under the car in cramped spaces. I'm not
25, you know.

It's funny how many excuses people make up for not being able to do
something, when the real reason is that they don't like the job.

My grandkids have a million excuses for why they can't take out the trash
each Thursday, for example, and why they can't mow the lawn on weekends.

They can't be honest about the real reason they don't do it, which is
simply that they don't like it, so they make up a million excuses which
make no logical sense.

Just admit it. You _can_ repair your own vehicle. You just don't like it.
And that's OK.

But, that means what would cost you $100 if you did it yourself, is gonna
end up costing you $1,000 to have someone else do it for you. That's all.

It skews the math tremendously.
And therefore, it skews your _decision_ making ability.

Just like how Apple owners stand on line outside an Apple store when a new
model comes out because they can't wait to ditch their old phone which,
itself, was only a couple of years old.

Anyone who doesn't do basic thinking at home is paying a LOT of money to
have other people do their thinking for them.

Tire rotations? Sure. But then, I need to go to some where to get the
front wheels balanced again. No win.

WTF? Do you know anything about what you're talking about?
o Tire rotations are trivial.
o They don't require a re-balance.
o Even if you wanted to re-balance, it's free to do at home.
o The dynamic balance test is free everywhere in the world.
o The dynamic balance is $5 per tire in every state in the USA.
etc.

It's funny, but people who make excuses for not being able to do basic
things will be making up all sorts of cockamamy reasons for why they can't
do the simplest things.

Just like my grandkids make up strange excuses for why they can't clean
their own bathrooms.

o A lot also do other easy stuff like brakes & battery replacements

Hard stuff like brakes, you mean! I tried once. I removed the wheel,
then didn't know how to continue.

There's almost nothing on a vehicle _easier_ than doing brakes, Carlos.

For example, for disc brakes, which most vehicles have nowadays...
from memory, generalizing a bit to handle different types of cars...
o You park on level ground, chock the rears, set the parking brake
o Loosen the lug nuts (or lug bolts, which my bimmer has)
o Jack the front & set on jack stands; jack the rear & set jack stands
o Try to simulate an earthquake by bouncing the vehicle by hand
o Mark position and then remove the wheels & inspect components
o Mic the rotors to see if they're over the wear limit
o If you're replacing the rotors, then remove the calipers
o Replace the rotors and check runout with a dial gauge
o Put the calipers back on after inspecting & lubing slide pins
o Remove the pad retaining spring (& unbolt if necessary the caliper slide)
o Expand the piston(s) to their full width to accept the new pads
o Snap in the new pads with a new backing plate & a few dabs of grease
o Maybe replace the sensor (if needed, usually on only one wheel)
o Replace the retaining spring & maybe the caliper bolts
o Replace the wheels and tighten lug nuts as best you can
o Lower the vehicle and torque lug nuts to the prescribed torque
o Take a test drive (and run a typical bedding procedure)

The entire 4-wheel job using OEM quality parts without the rotors costs
about $75 in parts (the tools are always free); with rotors, you can add
something like another %75 to $100 in rotors (or drums).

Drums are different in that there are shoes instead of pads, and springs
instead of clips, but where the procedure is essentially similar overall.

I take my sweet time when I'm working on the car, since it's something I do
at my leisure, but the whole job, start to finish, easily fits in an hour
for someone who is focused on getting the job done.