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Appendix C. Hard Disk Wiping methods, C.1 Information wiping methods’ functioning principles

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Appendix C. Hard Disk Wiping methods Information removed from a hard disk drive by non-secure means (for example, by simple Windows delete) can easily be recovered. Utilizing specialized equipment, it is possible to recover even repeatedly overwritten information. Therefore, guaranteed data wiping is more important now than ever before. The guaranteed wiping of information from magnetic media (e.g. a hard disk drive) means it is impossible to recover data by even a qualified specialist with the help of all known tools and recovery methods. This problem can be explained in the following way: Data is stored on a hard disk as a binary sequence of 1 and 0 (ones and zeros), represented by differently magnetized parts of a disk. Generally speaking, a 1 written to a hard disk is read as 1 by its controller, and 0 is read as 0. However, if you write 1 over 0, the result is conditionally 0.95 and vice versa - if 1 is written over 1 the result is 1.05. These differences are irrelevant for the controller. However, using special equipment, one can easily read the «underlying» sequence of 1's and 0's. It only requires specialized software and inexpensive hardware to read data "deleted" this way by analyzing magnetization of hard disk sectors, residual magnetization of track sides and/or by using current magnetic microscopes. Writing to magnetic media leads to subtle effects summarized as follows: every track of a disk stores an image of every record ever written to it, but the effect of such records (magnetic layer) becomes more subtle as time passes. C.1 Information wiping methods' functioning principles Physically, the complete wiping of information from a hard disk involves the switching of every elementary magnetic area of the recording material as many times as possible by writing specially selected sequences of logical 1's and 0's (also known as samples). Using logical data encoding methods in current hard disks, you can select samples of symbol (or elementary data bit) sequences to be written to sectors in order to repeatedly and effectively wipe confidential information. Methods offered by national standards provide (single or triple) recording of random symbols to disk sectors that are straightforward and arbitrary decisions, in general, but still acceptable in simple situations. The most effective information-wiping method is based on deep analysis of subtle features of recording data to all types of hard disks. This knowledge speaks of the necessity of complex multipass methods to guarantee information wiping. The detailed theory of guaranteed information wiping is described in an article by Peter Gutmann. Please see: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html. Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Acronis. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2009 Seagate Technology LLC. All Rights Reserved. 125

Section	Page
Chapter 1. Introduction	7
1.1 What is Seagate BlackArmor® Backup?	7
1.2 Advantages	7
1.3 System requirements and supported media	8
1.3.1 Minimum system requirements	8
1.3.2 Supported storage media	9
1.3.3 Supported operating systems	9
1.3.4 Supported file systems	9
1.4 License policy	9
1.5 Technical support	10
Chapter 2. Seagate BlackArmor Backup installation and startup	12
2.1 Installing Seagate BlackArmor Backup	12
2.1.1 Installing Seagate BlackArmor Backup	12
2.2 Extracting Seagate BlackArmor Backup	13
2.3 Running Seagate BlackArmor Backup	13
2.4 Removing Seagate BlackArmor Backup	13
Chapter 3. General information	14
3.1 The difference between file archives and disk/partition images	14
3.2 Full, incremental and differential backups	14
3.3 BlackArmor Backup Secure Zone	15
3.4 Viewing disk and partition information	15
3.5 Try&Decide	16
3.6 BlackArmor DriveCleanser, File Shredder, and System Clean-up	16
3.7 Support for Zip format	16
Chapter 4. Getting to know Seagate BlackArmor Backup	18
4.1 BlackArmor One-Click Protection	18
4.2 Program workspace	20
Chapter 5. Creating backup archives	24
5.1 Selecting what data to back up	24
5.2 Performing backup	25
5.2.1 Selecting data for backup	25
5.2.2 Selecting the target archive location	27
5.2.3 Scheduling	28
5.2.4 Backup method	29
5.2.5 Source files exclusion	30
5.2.6 Selecting the backup options	31
5.2.7 Setting automatic consolidation	32
5.2.8 Providing a comment	33
5.2.9 The operation summary and the backup process	33
5.3 Fine-tuning your backups	33
5.3.1 Archive protection	33
5.3.2 Source files exclusion	34
5.3.3 Pre/post commands	34
5.3.4 Compression level	34
5.3.5 Backup performance	35
5.3.6 Archive splitting	36
5.3.7 File-level security settings	36
5.3.8 Error handling	36
5.3.9 Additional settings	37
5.3.10 Backup reserve copy settings	37
5.3.11 Creating a custom data category for backups	38
5.4 Making reserve copies of your backups	39
Chapter 6. Restoring backup data	40
6.1 Restore under Windows or boot from CD?	40
6.1.1 Network settings in rescue mode	40
6.2 Restoring files and folders from file archives	40
6.3 Restoring disks/partitions or files from images	44
6.3.1 Starting the Restore Wizard	44
6.3.2 Archive selection	44
6.3.3 Restoration method selection	45
6.3.4 Selecting a disk/partition to restore	46
6.3.5 Selecting a target disk/partition	47
6.3.6 Changing the restored partition type	47
6.3.7 Changing the restored partition size and location	48
6.3.8 Assigning a letter to the restored partition	48
6.3.9 Setting restore options	48
6.3.10 Restoration summary and executing restoration	49
6.4 Setting restore options	49
6.4.1 Files to preserve during restoration	49
6.4.2 Pre/post commands	49
6.4.3 Restoration priority	50
6.4.4 File-level security settings	50
6.4.5 Additional settings	50
Chapter 7. Try&Decide	51
7.1 Using Try&Decide	54
7.1.2. Try&Decide options	54
7.2 Try&Decide usage examples	54
Chapter 8. Scheduling tasks	57
8.1 Creating scheduled tasks	57
8.1.1 Setting up once only execution	58
8.1.2 Setting up upon event execution	58
8.1.3 Setting up daily execution	59
8.1.4 Setting up weekly execution	60
8.1.5 Setting up monthly execution	60
8.2 Managing scheduled tasks	61
Chapter 9. Managing BlackArmor Backup Secure Zone	62
9.1 Creating BlackArmor Backup Secure Zone	62
9.2 Resizing BlackArmor Backup Secure Zone	64
9.3 Changing password for BlackArmor Backup Secure Zone	65
9.4 Deleting BlackArmor Backup Secure Zone	66
Chapter 10. Creating bootable media	67
Chapter 11. Other operations	70
11.1 Validating backup archives	70
11.2 Operation results notification	72
11.2.1 Email notification	72
11.2.2 WinPopup notification	73
11.3 Viewing Tasks and Logs	74
11.4 Consolidating backups	76
11.5 Removing backup archives	79
Chapter 12. Exploring archives and mounting images	81
12.1 Searching	81
12.2 Google Desktop and Windows Search integration	83
12.3 Mounting an image	90
12.4 Unmounting an image	92
Chapter 13. Transferring the system to a new disk	94
13.1 General information	94
13.2 Security	95
13.3 Executing transfers	95
13.3.1 Selecting Clone mode	95
13.3.2 Selecting source disk	95
13.3.3 Selecting destination disk	96
13.3.4 Partitioned destination disk	97
13.3.5 Selecting partition transfer method	97
13.3.6 Cloning with manual partitioning	98
13.3.7 Cloning summary	100
Chapter 14. Adding a new hard disk	101
14.1 Selecting a hard disk	101
14.2 Creating new partitions	101
14.3 Disk add summary	102
Chapter 15. Security and Privacy Tools	104
15.1 Using File Shredder	104
15.2 BlackArmor DriveCleanser	105
15.3 Creating custom algorithms of data destruction	108
15.4 System Clean-up	109
15.5 System Clean-up Wizard settings	110
15.5.1 \	110
15.5.2 \	110
15.5.3 \	111
15.5.4 \	112
15.5.5 \	112
15.5.6 \	113
15.6 Cleaning up separate system components	113
Appendix A. Partitions and file systems	114
Appendix B. Hard disks and BIOS setup	117
B.1 Installing hard disks in computers	117
B.1.1 Installing a hard disk, general scheme	117
B.1.2 Motherboard sockets, IDE cable, power cable	118
B.1.3 Configuring hard disk drives, jumpers	118
B.2 BIOS	119
B.2.1 Setup utility	119
B.2.2 Standard CMOS setup menu	120
B.2.3 Arranging boot sequence, advanced CMOS setup menu	121
B.2.4 Hard disk initialization errors	122
B.3 Installing a SATA hard drive	123
B.3.1 Steps for installing a new internal SATA drive.	123
Appendix C. Hard Disk Wiping methods	125
C.1 Information wiping methods’ functioning principles	125
C.2 Information wiping methods used by Seagate BlackArmor Backup	126

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125

Appendix C.

Hard Disk Wiping methods

Information removed from a hard disk drive by non-secure means (for example, by

simple Windows delete) can easily be recovered. Utilizing specialized equipment, it

is possible to recover even repeatedly overwritten information. Therefore,

guaranteed data wiping is more important now than ever before.

The

guaranteed wiping of information

from magnetic media (e.g. a hard disk drive)

means it is impossible to recover data by even a qualified specialist with the help of

all known tools and recovery methods.

This problem can be explained in the following way: Data is stored on a hard disk as

a binary sequence of 1 and 0 (ones and zeros), represented by differently

magnetized parts of a disk.

Generally speaking, a 1 written to a hard disk is read as 1 by its controller, and 0 is

read as 0. However, if you write 1 over 0, the result is conditionally 0.95 and vice

versa – if 1 is written over 1 the result is 1.05. These differences are irrelevant for

the controller. However, using special equipment, one can easily read the

«underlying» sequence of 1's and 0's.

It only requires specialized software and inexpensive hardware to read data

"deleted" this way by analyzing magnetization of hard disk sectors, residual

magnetization of track sides and/or by using current magnetic microscopes.

Writing to magnetic media leads to subtle effects summarized as follows: every

track of a disk stores

an image of every record

ever written to it, but the effect of

such records (magnetic layer) becomes more subtle as time passes.

C.1

Information wiping methods’ functioning principles

Physically, the complete wiping of information from a hard disk involves the

switching of every elementary magnetic area of the recording material as many

times as possible by writing specially selected sequences of logical 1's and 0's (also

known as samples).

Using logical data encoding methods in current hard disks, you can select

samples

of symbol (or elementary data bit) sequences to be written to sectors in order to

repeatedly and effectively wipe confidential information.

Methods offered by national standards provide (single or triple) recording of random

symbols to disk sectors that are

straightforward and arbitrary decisions, in general

but still acceptable in simple situations. The most effective information-wiping

method is based on deep analysis of subtle features of recording data to all types of

hard disks. This knowledge speaks of the necessity of complex multipass methods

guarantee

information wiping.

The detailed theory of guaranteed information wiping is described in an article by

Peter Gutmann. Please see:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html