Seagate BlackArmor NAS 400 Series BlackArmor Backup User Guide - Page 127
Appendix C., Hard Disk Wiping methods
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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. 127