Darik's Boot and Nuke

Darik's Boot and Nuke

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.
DBAN is a means of ensuring due diligence in computer recycling, a way of preventing identity theft if you want to sell a computer, and a good way to totally clean a Microsoft Windows installation of viruses and spyware. DBAN prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis.

**I recommend it for unwanted visits from the MPAA, RIAA, NSA, etc...



http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Sounds cool, but I doubt it would save you from any "law enforcement" agencies knocking on your door. It takes a while to do multiple passes writing random data on a HDD. My question is, does it fit the NIST Guidelines for Media Sanitization: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-88/NISTSP800-88_rev1.pdf

Wikipedia has a decent article on data shredding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shredding

Well it probably wouldn't save your ass from jail time if they wanted to nail you really bad, but it is handy for getting rid of cursory evidence. If you REALLY don't want the data being discovered, the tried and tested way to remove it is as follows:
1. get 2 ceramic flower pots
2. stack them
3. fill top pot with thermite
4. put magnesium ribbon in said pot and leave it hanging on the outside (fuse)
5. ignite with propane torch
6. watch as your hard drive is turned into molten materials.
7. watch as molten metal runs through your case, through your desk, through your floor, etc.

note: do NOT use water on the molten metal, it WILL explode.

note2: have a large sand bucket to soak up molten material or you'll be house shopping soon. I wouldn't suggest doing this indoors.

^^Yes a thermite bomb will definitely destroy the evidence, and your floor rather quickly. Hopefully you don't put in too much and burn the house down or melt through the floor and kill someone downstairs.

What I was saying about this program is, it would likely take a long time to do the wiping and I don't know if you could keep cops waiting outside for 45 minutes while you looked for your robe.

Sure ya could. Barricade yourself in the computer room and yell something like "I'm going to shoot the first pig that walks in the door". And make "click, click" noises. Oh wait, the penalty for that is probably worse than the computer files. Well, maybe not *MY* files, but you get the idea.