Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 19 of 19

Thread: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Tennessee, USA
    Beans
    148
    Distro
    Kubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    Yeah, the first time I used it. Gutmann is like 34 wipes, so sudo bcwipe -F m1 / and allowing that to finish should give you an idea. I can't remember how long it took me because I forgot about it or if I used gutmann for that matter. I probably had around 3.2 gigs free at the time on root.
    Last edited by CupofDice; October 25th, 2006 at 08:53 AM.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Beans
    Hidden!

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    Open terminal and type something like:

    dd if=/dev/urandom of=/tmp/shred-free-space-slug
    rm /tmp/shred-free-space-slug

    If you forget --or can't run-- the "rm" command then the slug should still be removed after a restart.

    This solution isn't perfect as the OS may still reserve space or other software may complain free space is low.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Rome, Ga
    Beans
    2,339
    Distro
    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    Um, if you're wiping a 30 gig drive that has 1 gig free space on it, wouldn't it like make sense just to use gparted to reformat the drive, then run bcwipe on a free and open 30 gig drive so space wouldn't be an issue? (replace the word drive with partition as needed, of course)

    I have a hard drive with some filth on it that I'd as soon not have around, and desire to have the drive totally clean. I've run magic rescue on it after having formatted it, and the images were still there. I then reformatted it to ext 3, then reiser, then fat32, then back to ext 3, ran magic rescue, and nothing would show up. It said it found stuff, but couldn't do anything with it.

    Since then, I've done this:

    dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

    but I really want to be sure nothing remains at all regardless.


    *in case you're wondering, it was a "this machine's junk, if you want it for spare parts, help yourself" situation. Yeah, being nosey, I looked around, and yep, found some pron sites in in the temporary files, and lo and behold some rather um, well, images that would get someone in a heapa trouble. I looked at the sites visited's names, and none looked like anyone was purposely looking for anything "wrong", but the size of the images pretty much led me to believe that they were thumbnail sized images on pages serving as links to other sites, so I figure the fellow wasn't like some prevert or anything. And it's not like there were that many. They all dated to one week out of what looked like ages of browsing. (I had no idea that much stuff would stick around) Which leads me to beg the question, "what if someone who didn't know how to work on their computer had cruised some pron sites, and these little nasties were in their temp folder, and some straightlace tattle tale who had no business snooping saw them and called the law? Would the owner be in a heapa trouble because of the images on the drive? I mean, you open a page, and you have no control over the content, right? But the images get cached, and bam, you have stuff on your drive; in your possession. Scary thought...

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Idaho
    Beans
    473
    Distro
    Xubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    If you want to get rid of these pictures, reformatting and the like will not destroy all traces. If I get your drift about the possible content (CP) I would recommend using Darik's Boot and Nuke. Use either DoD 7-pass or Guttman Method, and you are pretty much safe.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Rome, Ga
    Beans
    2,339
    Distro
    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    You probably do get the gist, unfortunately.

    So with dban, can I specify just what exact drive or partition (yes, I looked at it while it was slaved, so I have that crap on this drive most likely)? I have to make a bootable disk, right? Run it, then what?

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Idaho
    Beans
    473
    Distro
    Xubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    Quote Originally Posted by BLTicklemonster View Post
    You probably do get the gist, unfortunately.

    So with dban, can I specify just what exact drive or partition (yes, I looked at it while it was slaved, so I have that crap on this drive most likely)? I have to make a bootable disk, right? Run it, then what?
    Just download the CD image from the site: http://dban.sourceforge.net/ Burn the ISO to a CD using K3b or Gnomebaker or whatever you use. Then, boot up with the desired device to clean connected to your motherboard.

    DO NOT USE THE AUTONUKE. When you boot up you will have a list of options. You want to select the interactive option. From there, select the device you want to scramble (take note of the size, make, and model on the hard drive itself) and select a certain partition or just the whole device.

    From there, you can select the method, data stream type, and number of passes. If you want to be 100% sure it's gone, go for the Gutmann method (read the Wikipedia article if you would like; it's a very fascinating read and cool to learn about). If you want to be 99% and you plan on installing an operating system over it anyway, just use the DoD 7-pass.

    If you're going for the Gutmann Method, I'd expect at the very least 12 hours to finish the wipe. But, hey, peace of mind, right?

    Quote Originally Posted by BLTicklemonster
    "what if someone who didn't know how to work on their computer had cruised some pron sites, and these little nasties were in their temp folder, and some straightlace tattle tale who had no business snooping saw them and called the law? Would the owner be in a heapa trouble because of the images on the drive? I mean, you open a page, and you have no control over the content, right? But the images get cached, and bam, you have stuff on your drive; in your possession. Scary thought...
    This is one of the reasons I am against some of the child porn laws out there today. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a pedophile and I don't support anyone who harms a child, but some of the laws are flat out asinine. I remember reading about a court case where this college student got arrested and charged with possession and using a computer for child pornography, and he was going to get a few years. Then, forensic scientists found out somebody used Sub7 (yes, Sub7, that old-school backdoor) to upload it to his computer. More recently, a kid, 15 years old or so, was caught with some pictures of young girls in "seductive positions." He would have faced life in prison since he lived in Arizona, and you get many years for each picture. Turns out someone had uploaded them to his computer since he had some open p2p folders on his computer.

    Now, you tell me, shouldn't the authorities be hunting down the ones who touch little kids in naughty places instead of barging in, guns drawn, on someone who has a picture of a naked 16-year old on his computer? The people who make that porn should be locked up, but possession seems to me to be a victimless crime, so long as it is not used for grooming of potential victims.

    Oh, well. I don't take part in it, so it doesn't concern me too much. Anyway, yeah, get that hard drive wiped.

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Rome, Ga
    Beans
    2,339
    Distro
    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    Child pron? Heavens no, it's Hillary campaign ads.




    Just kidding.




    Thanks for the tips.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Rome, Ga
    Beans
    2,339
    Distro
    Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    Thank you, I think I've got this going along fine now.

  9. #19
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Beans
    11

    Re: Howto: Wipe free space with Bcwipe

    How is this better than doing
    Code:
    sudo apt-get install secure-delete
    and then using the tools it includes:

    srm Secure remove; used for deleting files or directories currently on your hard disk

    smem Secure memory wiper; used to wipe traces of data from your computer’s memory (RAM)

    sfill Secure free space wiper; used to wipe all traces of data from the free space on your disk

    sswap Secure swap wiper; used to wipe all traces of data from your swap partition.

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •