Securely erase encrypted HDD?
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I have an old computer running Lubuntu, and I want to give it away. Before that, I want to make sure none of my data can be recovered from the hard drive.
I tried doing this using shred and dd from a Lubuntu live USB, but keep getting the message:
failed to open for writing: Permission denied
The drive is encrypted. Could that be the problem?
If so, how can I securely erase it? I've heard that without the password it's unreadable anyway, but it seems that someone could use a brute force approach to decrypt it, so that doesn't seem very secure.
hard-drive security encryption secure-erase
edited Jun 11 at 6:22
Stephen Rauch
1,1545716
asked Jun 11 at 1:59
Kinami
83
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I have an old computer running Lubuntu, and I want to give it away. Before that, I want to make sure none of my data can be recovered from the hard drive.
I tried doing this using shred and dd from a Lubuntu live USB, but keep getting the message:
failed to open for writing: Permission denied
The drive is encrypted. Could that be the problem?
If so, how can I securely erase it? I've heard that without the password it's unreadable anyway, but it seems that someone could use a brute force approach to decrypt it, so that doesn't seem very secure.
hard-drive security encryption secure-erase
edited Jun 11 at 6:22
Stephen Rauch
1,1545716
asked Jun 11 at 1:59
Kinami
83
If the data are encrypted with a good passphrase, they cannot be read, so they need not be erased. You can simply install Lubuntu and let the installer use the whole drive. If you want to erase everything anyway, you can use DBAN to wipe the hard disk drive. See this link How can I permanently erase data on INTERNAL HDD?
– sudodus
Jun 11 at 6:21
Thank you! I didn't know if people still used DBAN since many of the posts recommending it are years old, and the software doesn't seem to be recently updated.
– Kinami
Jun 14 at 8:05
add a comment |Â
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
up vote
1
down vote
favorite
I have an old computer running Lubuntu, and I want to give it away. Before that, I want to make sure none of my data can be recovered from the hard drive.
I tried doing this using shred and dd from a Lubuntu live USB, but keep getting the message:
failed to open for writing: Permission denied
The drive is encrypted. Could that be the problem?
If so, how can I securely erase it? I've heard that without the password it's unreadable anyway, but it seems that someone could use a brute force approach to decrypt it, so that doesn't seem very secure.
hard-drive security encryption secure-erase
edited Jun 11 at 6:22
Stephen Rauch
1,1545716
asked Jun 11 at 1:59
Kinami
83
I have an old computer running Lubuntu, and I want to give it away. Before that, I want to make sure none of my data can be recovered from the hard drive.
I tried doing this using shred and dd from a Lubuntu live USB, but keep getting the message:
failed to open for writing: Permission denied
The drive is encrypted. Could that be the problem?
If so, how can I securely erase it? I've heard that without the password it's unreadable anyway, but it seems that someone could use a brute force approach to decrypt it, so that doesn't seem very secure.
hard-drive security encryption secure-erase
edited Jun 11 at 6:22
Stephen Rauch
1,1545716
asked Jun 11 at 1:59
Kinami
83
edited Jun 11 at 6:22
Stephen Rauch
1,1545716
edited Jun 11 at 6:22
Stephen Rauch
1,1545716
edited Jun 11 at 6:22
Stephen Rauch
1,1545716
1,1545716
asked Jun 11 at 1:59
Kinami
83
asked Jun 11 at 1:59
Kinami
83
asked Jun 11 at 1:59
Kinami
83
83
If the data are encrypted with a good passphrase, they cannot be read, so they need not be erased. You can simply install Lubuntu and let the installer use the whole drive. If you want to erase everything anyway, you can use DBAN to wipe the hard disk drive. See this link How can I permanently erase data on INTERNAL HDD?
– sudodus
Jun 11 at 6:21
Thank you! I didn't know if people still used DBAN since many of the posts recommending it are years old, and the software doesn't seem to be recently updated.
– Kinami
Jun 14 at 8:05
add a comment |Â
If the data are encrypted with a good passphrase, they cannot be read, so they need not be erased. You can simply install Lubuntu and let the installer use the whole drive. If you want to erase everything anyway, you can use DBAN to wipe the hard disk drive. See this link How can I permanently erase data on INTERNAL HDD?
– sudodus
Jun 11 at 6:21
Thank you! I didn't know if people still used DBAN since many of the posts recommending it are years old, and the software doesn't seem to be recently updated.
– Kinami
Jun 14 at 8:05
If the data are encrypted with a good passphrase, they cannot be read, so they need not be erased. You can simply install Lubuntu and let the installer use the whole drive. If you want to erase everything anyway, you can use DBAN to wipe the hard disk drive. See this link How can I permanently erase data on INTERNAL HDD?
– sudodus
Jun 11 at 6:21
If the data are encrypted with a good passphrase, they cannot be read, so they need not be erased. You can simply install Lubuntu and let the installer use the whole drive. If you want to erase everything anyway, you can use DBAN to wipe the hard disk drive. See this link How can I permanently erase data on INTERNAL HDD?
– sudodus
Jun 11 at 6:21
Thank you! I didn't know if people still used DBAN since many of the posts recommending it are years old, and the software doesn't seem to be recently updated.
– Kinami
Jun 14 at 8:05
Thank you! I didn't know if people still used DBAN since many of the posts recommending it are years old, and the software doesn't seem to be recently updated.
– Kinami
Jun 14 at 8:05
add a comment |Â
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
No, drive encryption is not the problem. Violations of the rules are the problem.
First, ensure that none of the partitions on the disk is mounted, with
mount | grep -E "/dev"
sudo umount every one of the disk's partitions.
Then, since you're trying to gain direct access to the disk structure, run your command as root:
sudo dd ......
or
sudo shred ......
answered Jun 11 at 6:28
waltinator
20.1k73868
@Kinami Please Accept my answer, so I'll get reputation points.
– waltinator
Jun 14 at 15:21
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Usually, without the password you cannot or barely recover the data. That doesn't mean, you can't overwrite the data. I'd use dd too. But the question is: did you try it as user or as root? I guess you had the permission denied, because you tried it as user? Try again as root ;)
answered Jun 11 at 6:03
Neobie
964
add a comment |Â
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
No, drive encryption is not the problem. Violations of the rules are the problem.
First, ensure that none of the partitions on the disk is mounted, with
mount | grep -E "/dev"
sudo umount every one of the disk's partitions.
Then, since you're trying to gain direct access to the disk structure, run your command as root:
sudo dd ......
or
sudo shred ......
answered Jun 11 at 6:28
waltinator
20.1k73868
@Kinami Please Accept my answer, so I'll get reputation points.
– waltinator
Jun 14 at 15:21
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
No, drive encryption is not the problem. Violations of the rules are the problem.
First, ensure that none of the partitions on the disk is mounted, with
mount | grep -E "/dev"
sudo umount every one of the disk's partitions.
Then, since you're trying to gain direct access to the disk structure, run your command as root:
sudo dd ......
or
sudo shred ......
answered Jun 11 at 6:28
waltinator
20.1k73868
@Kinami Please Accept my answer, so I'll get reputation points.
– waltinator
Jun 14 at 15:21
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
up vote
0
down vote
accepted
No, drive encryption is not the problem. Violations of the rules are the problem.
First, ensure that none of the partitions on the disk is mounted, with
mount | grep -E "/dev"
sudo umount every one of the disk's partitions.
Then, since you're trying to gain direct access to the disk structure, run your command as root:
sudo dd ......
or
sudo shred ......
answered Jun 11 at 6:28
waltinator
20.1k73868
No, drive encryption is not the problem. Violations of the rules are the problem.
First, ensure that none of the partitions on the disk is mounted, with
mount | grep -E "/dev"
sudo umount every one of the disk's partitions.
Then, since you're trying to gain direct access to the disk structure, run your command as root:
sudo dd ......
or
sudo shred ......
answered Jun 11 at 6:28
waltinator
20.1k73868
answered Jun 11 at 6:28
waltinator
20.1k73868
answered Jun 11 at 6:28
waltinator
20.1k73868
answered Jun 11 at 6:28
waltinator
20.1k73868
20.1k73868
@Kinami Please Accept my answer, so I'll get reputation points.
– waltinator
Jun 14 at 15:21
add a comment |Â
@Kinami Please Accept my answer, so I'll get reputation points.
– waltinator
Jun 14 at 15:21
@Kinami Please Accept my answer, so I'll get reputation points.
– waltinator
Jun 14 at 15:21
@Kinami Please Accept my answer, so I'll get reputation points.
– waltinator
Jun 14 at 15:21
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Usually, without the password you cannot or barely recover the data. That doesn't mean, you can't overwrite the data. I'd use dd too. But the question is: did you try it as user or as root? I guess you had the permission denied, because you tried it as user? Try again as root ;)
answered Jun 11 at 6:03
Neobie
964
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Usually, without the password you cannot or barely recover the data. That doesn't mean, you can't overwrite the data. I'd use dd too. But the question is: did you try it as user or as root? I guess you had the permission denied, because you tried it as user? Try again as root ;)
answered Jun 11 at 6:03
Neobie
964
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
Usually, without the password you cannot or barely recover the data. That doesn't mean, you can't overwrite the data. I'd use dd too. But the question is: did you try it as user or as root? I guess you had the permission denied, because you tried it as user? Try again as root ;)
answered Jun 11 at 6:03
Neobie
964
Usually, without the password you cannot or barely recover the data. That doesn't mean, you can't overwrite the data. I'd use dd too. But the question is: did you try it as user or as root? I guess you had the permission denied, because you tried it as user? Try again as root ;)
answered Jun 11 at 6:03
Neobie
964
answered Jun 11 at 6:03
Neobie
964
answered Jun 11 at 6:03
Neobie
964
answered Jun 11 at 6:03
Neobie
964
964
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
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If the data are encrypted with a good passphrase, they cannot be read, so they need not be erased. You can simply install Lubuntu and let the installer use the whole drive. If you want to erase everything anyway, you can use DBAN to wipe the hard disk drive. See this link How can I permanently erase data on INTERNAL HDD?
– sudodus
Jun 11 at 6:21
Thank you! I didn't know if people still used DBAN since many of the posts recommending it are years old, and the software doesn't seem to be recently updated.
– Kinami
Jun 14 at 8:05