Ontrack DATAERASER Users Manual

™

DataEraser

Users Manual

Explanation of Operation and Use

Table of Contents

1. Brief Overview Page 2

2. Hardware/System Requirements Page 3

3. Distinctions between Personal and Professional Versions Page 3

4. Verification of data overwriting Page 4

5. DataEraser startup and operating procedures Page 4

Screenshots - All screens are the same between versions except as noted

Figure 1 Load ASPI drivers (Professional version only) Page 5 Figure 2 Welcome screen Page 6 Figure 3 Main menu (Provides an overview of the DataEraser steps) Page 7 Figure 4 Drive selection Page 8 Figure 5 Individual partition or full drive selection Page 9 Figure 6 Overwrite options (Professional version only) Page 10 Figure 7 Select number of passes (Professional version only) Page 11 Figure 8 Final overwrite pattern Page 12 Figure 9 Verification selection (Professional version only) Page 13 Figure 10 Validation Certificate comment entry (Professional version only) Page 14 Figure 11 Final confirmation of overwrite options Page 15 Figure 12 Overwriting Page 16 Figure 13 Verifying Page 17 Figure 14 Successful Overwrite Completion Page 18 Figure 15 Validation Certificate (Professional version only) Page 19 Figure 16 View Drives menu selection Page 20 Figure 17 View Drive/Disk Look opening screen Page 21 Figure 18 Disk Look screen with a typical example of data on a drive Page 22 Figure 19 Disk Look screen after DataEraser overwrite with 00 pattern Page 23 Figure 20 Exit dataEraser menu selection Page 24

6. Professional version database methods Page 25

7. Errors and known limitations Page 25

8. SCSI Issues Page 27

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1. Brief Overview

Most computer users have come to realize that data saved to a hard drive is left on the drive after deleting or sending the data to the Recycle bin. Deletion only means that the operating system no longer has access to the data, not that the actual information has been removed. The closest analogy is likened to removing the specific entry in the table of contents of a book without going out to the chapter area to rip out the associated pages. All operating systems currently employ this timesaving method of deletion.

DataEraser is designed to eliminate data from any portion of a hard drive, since it can completely overwrite the entire drive. Options to erase (overwrite) a single partition, or all areas of a hard drive are provided as choices in a simple menu system. DataEraser writes predetermined character patterns (the final pattern is a selection choice in some cases) to the surface of the hard drive. When a pattern (any character or combination of characters) is written to a data area, any previous information is lost so far as any operating system can access. If the full drive option is chosen, all data in normal file areas, hidden files, or protected areas will be erased. Previous installations that failed, viruses and other troublesome situations may be cleared.

The obvious danger inherent is that no keyboard level data recovery process can retrieve the data once DataEraser has been run on that area. Ontrack recommends creating a backup before using DataEraser if there is any concern for accessing that data again.

The following are typical uses for DataEraser:

• Drive or system recycling from one user or company to another (especially good in leased situations)

• Donations or other transfers of hard drives, including warranty replacement

• Eliminating unwanted email or other data from a system.

• Purging all data for a known clean re-installation

• In some cases DataEraser can be valuable to “start from scratch” when completely

reinstalling an operating system or attempting to clean up a virus.

One issue of eliminating sensitive data on a system has to do with the duplication of data to another partition or another hard drive as a background process. Many programs rely on temporary directories, especially on the first hard drive to store data while an application program edits or handles that data. Remember that these sorts of possibilities exist beyond the drive where the data is ultimately stored. It may be necessary to overwrite more than just the storage drive to eliminate deleted temporary file remnants on other drives in the computer system.

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2. Hardware/System Requirements

DataEraser requires:

• AT compatible CPU chipsets with a minimum of 386 or greater processor

• 8 Mb of RAM

• 1.44 Mb floppy diskette drive

• EGA 640 x 480 or above graphics

• Hard drives must be SCSI or IDE technology (EIDE/Fast-ATA) drives attached in common

controller methods. No guarantees of drive access are made with proprietary IDE controller cards.

3. Distinctions between Personal and Professional Versions

DataEraser is available in a Personal or Professional version.

Product Features Professional Personal

Ability to overwrite IDE/ATA drives Ability to overwrite SCSI drives Graphical user interface Time remaining and grow bar displayed Self-booting capability for use on all Intel PCs - and all operating systems Ability to overwrite entire drive no matter what BIOS limitations exist Option to overwrite one or more partitions or the entire drive Logs bad sectors encountered during overwrite Automatically includes drive model and serial number in reports View Drive application allows viewing drive sectors before or after overwrite Full Verification option verifies the complete drive Quick Verification option verifies 1% of the drive Creates validation certificate if Full Verification option is used Creates a database of overwritten drives to import into Microsoft Access Three pass overwrite meets U.S. Department of Defense specifications Seven pass overwrite meets German standards User-defined option to overwrite from 1 to 99 times

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4. Verification of data overwriting

Since, in many cases, data elimination is an important part of personal or company security, a verification process is incorporated in DataEraser. The user has a choice of Full or Quick verification. The Full Verification choice reads every sector, while Quick Verification spot-checks 1% of the overwritten area.

Disk Look, (View Drives menu selection) an absolute sector viewer, is an additional utility provided for viewing sectors on the hard drive. Any sector on the hard drive may be viewed to verify no data exists on the drive. For those cases where manual spot-checking is desired, this utility may offer visual verification of any area.

The following files will be created after erasing and verifying a drive: REPORT.TXT DE_CERT.TXT (Professional version only) DE_DATA.TXT (Professional version only)

5. DataEraser startup and operating procedures

Do not remove the DataEraser diskette while the tests are running. Information from the diskette is used throughout the testing process.

Shut down Windows. Insert the DataEraser diskette in the A: drive and reboot or power on the computer. The Caldera DR-DOS Operating System starts up. If the system fails to boot from the diskette, see Errors and known limitations section later in this file.

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Figure 1: Load ASPI drivers (Professional version only)

If the system contains SCSI hard drives, in order to access the drives the ASPI drivers need to be loaded. During boot up a LoadASPI program will present 3 options:

1) Skip loading an ASPI driver

2) Use a known ASPI device driver - offers the option to enter the location (path) and name of an ASPI driver.

3) Autodetect for a host adapter - the program will detect what type of ASPI driver is required and automatically load it.

If there are no SCSI devices on the system, either skip loading an ASPI driver or let the program default to auto-detect.

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Figure 2: Welcome screen

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Figure 3: Main menu (Provides an overview of the DataEraser steps)

The DataEraser Overview dialog on the right side displays the steps. The menu provides the following options:

• Run DataEraser

• View Drives

• View README File

• View License Agreement

• Exit DataEraser

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Figure 4: Drive selection

Please be careful in selecting the appropriate hard drive on this screen. There will be a display just before erasing data that provides a description of all selections made.

Normally all drives are displayed one this screen. See Errors and known limitations section later in this manual if not all hard drives are shown.

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Figure 5: Individual partition or full drive selection

Select the specific partition to overwrite or the Entire Drive and press enter. If a partition was chosen to overwrite, DataEraser will return to this menu until all the partitions or the entire drive has been overwritten.

Professional Version note: A Validation Certificate will be created only if the entire drive is overwritten using the Full Verification option.

+ 18 hidden pages

Ontrack DATAERASER Users Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual