How to Encrypt and Erase a Hard Drive by Digital Trends
Posted by John on August 24th, 2009
Reasonable and basic intro for folks.
How to Encrypt and Erase a Hard Drive – by Digital Trends 2009 08/23
One thing many neglect : a true benefit of running your hard disks as FDE / Full Disk Encryption is that when you are done, there should be nothing to erase; the data is useless without your high-quality key.
Excerpt :
We discussed the importance of backing up the data stored on your computer’s hard drive in a previous story. But what happens if your computer is lost or stolen? Notebooks are particularly vulnerable. A thoroughly executed back-up plan will alleviate data loss, but do you want strangers perusing the highly personal information you’ve stored on that machine? We didn’t think so; that’s why we put together this guide to keeping your electronic data secure.
First, we’ll take you through the process of encrypting the data on your hard drive, so that you can use passwords to control who can see it. And since no computer lasts forever, we’ll show you how to scrub your hard drive so that no one will ever be able to retrieve anything from it when you decide it’s time to put it out to pasture.
Of course, I’ve enjoying watching many a hard drive scrub, and then sleep with the fishes. Commercial hard drive shredding is a fun day at the office
