Need idea to use two old machines

[DevilDog#1]

So, I've 2 old machines in closet. I'm thinking of throwing them out but was wondering what I can use them for before I do that?

1. P2 - 166 Mhz - 512MB ram - CD ROM - 500MB HDD
2. P3 - 2 Ghz - 1 gig ram - CD/RW - 1.2 Gig HDD

[Steve]

linux firewall?

shame u dont have a bigger hard drive, could of made a nice NAS or media streamer.

[DevilDog#1]

Yeah I was looking at www.freenas.org

Found the following:

1. two spare HDDs 30Gig (Linux on it) and 2.5 Gigs.
2. two spare CD ROMs


What do you think I can pull something together?

[zza1pqx]

As I understand it, it's worth stripping them and banging components on e-bay.
There is a minor market out there for out of production spares.

[DevilDog#1]

I'm scared to put my HDDs out on market to tell you the truth ...

Any complete erasing utils out there?

[Steve]

http://www.dban.org/

[IcIshoot]

I just use the software that the disk makers put out, doing a governmental wipe - fills the drive with zero's at least 3 times - ie, a low level format


I read through the FAQ on that dban.org site - it doesn't sound any better then a low level format. One of the questions states that dban is "good enough" for "most people"

[DevilDog#1]

My concern is that my personal data might end in some sweat shop in Somalia!

0 fill method is reversible! That's only QUICK format. I might try

American DoD 5220-22.M: A seven-pass wipe using random characters, complements of characters, and random data streams.

[IcIshoot]

its been a while since I have done it - I know that seagate's utilities have varying levels of over write complexity - I never get rid of my drives so a normal low level format is good enough for me.

My drives get re-used as test drives. For example, I recently just tried taking the platters from one drive and installing them into an other - didn't work lol.

Or I use them for when I test out various OS's

[zza1pqx]

Originally posted by DevilDog#1
My concern is that my personal data might end in some sweat shop in Somalia!

0 fill method is reversible! That's only QUICK format. I might try

American DoD 5220-22.M: A seven-pass wipe using random characters, complements of characters, and random data streams.

Get the magnet out of a 600 watt sub woofer and don't put a return address on the drive's package.

[Steve]

put it in a CT Scanner

[Steve]

Originally posted by icishoot
I just use the software that the disk makers put out, doing a governmental wipe - fills the drive with zero's at least 3 times - ie, a low level format


I read through the FAQ on that dban.org site - it doesn't sound any better then a low level format. One of the questions states that dban is "good enough" for "most people"

it uses gutmann method, 35 times overwrite

[IcIshoot]

I know - then I read this FAQ -

"Is the Gutmann method the best method?
No.

Most of the passes in the Gutmann wipe are designed to flip the bits in MFM/RLL encoded disks, which is an encoding that modern hard disks do not use.

In a followup to his paper, Gutmann said that it is unnecessary to run those passes because you cannot be reasonably certain about how a modern hard disk stores data on the platter. If the encoding is unknown, then writing random patterns is your best strategy.

In particular, Gutmann says that "in the time since this paper was published, some people have treated the 35-pass overwrite technique described in it more as a kind of voodoo incantation to banish evil spirits than the result of a technical analysis of drive encoding techniques. As a result, they advocate applying the voodoo to PRML and EPRML drives even though it will have no more effect than a simple scrubbing with random data... For any modern PRML/EPRML drive, a few passes of random scrubbing is the best you can do".

"

lol - if it isn't the best method then there is probably a better method


any method is probably good enough to stop the average person from getting your data - if your that concerned about people getting the data then I would a, not get rid of the drive or b turn it in to wind chimes