On Jun 29, 6:54 am, RnR <rnrte...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:43:58 -0400, Barry Watzman
>
> <WatzmanNOS...@neo.rr.com> wrote:
> >There is no way that 39MB can hold a restore image of Windows XP. It
> >requires at least 400 to 600MB.
>
> Barry, I think he just mixed up some of the sizes. Probably the
> 39megs is the partition with diagnostics. Bottom line is I think you
> are correct. Sometimes tho it might get confusing as Dell puts 2 or 3
> special partitions on a new hd (ie: diagnostics, backup, recovery and
> who knows what else?? ).
>
> Actually I just wipe them all off as I don't trust any corporation wrt
> to spyware, etc... . Then I just make my own special partition so I
> know what I actually have or don't have as well as the size of the
> partition .
Yep. Tom's correct, Barry's correct, and Ben's correct. I've been
thoroughly corrected, and correctly so. My bad. In my haste to be
helpful, that's what I get for having too many forum/newsgroup windows
open at once and transposing OPs. Thank you to the pros for
correcting this rookie.
As Tom said, the OP had wiped the restore partition, but still had the
diagnostics partition available. Thus, Sudohnim's question to me.
What's a little confusing to me is the content of this article:
It states that Microsoft has provided it's own imaging function,
ImageX, which is accessed from the Vista Recovery Environment via F8
at boot up. The article goes on to state that Dell has taken
advantage of this, and provides a factory image in ImageX, which is
accessible through the Vista Recovery Enivronment (also). So, are
there two ImageXs? One from Microsoft which restores only Vista, and
another one from Dell which restores Vista and all other apps/drivers,
as shipped from the factory? I don't have a Vista machine (yet), so I
can't check it out myself.
Boris wrote:
> On Jun 29, 6:54 am, RnR <rnrte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:43:58 -0400, Barry Watzman
>>
>> <WatzmanNOS...@neo.rr.com> wrote:
>>> There is no way that 39MB can hold a restore image of Windows XP. It
>>> requires at least 400 to 600MB.
>> Barry, I think he just mixed up some of the sizes. Probably the
>> 39megs is the partition with diagnostics. Bottom line is I think you
>> are correct. Sometimes tho it might get confusing as Dell puts 2 or 3
>> special partitions on a new hd (ie: diagnostics, backup, recovery and
>> who knows what else?? ).
>>
>> Actually I just wipe them all off as I don't trust any corporation wrt
>> to spyware, etc... . Then I just make my own special partition so I
>> know what I actually have or don't have as well as the size of the
>> partition .
>
> Yep. Tom's correct, Barry's correct, and Ben's correct. I've been
> thoroughly corrected, and correctly so. My bad. In my haste to be
> helpful, that's what I get for having too many forum/newsgroup windows
> open at once and transposing OPs. Thank you to the pros for
> correcting this rookie.
>
> As Tom said, the OP had wiped the restore partition, but still had the
> diagnostics partition available. Thus, Sudohnim's question to me.
>
> What's a little confusing to me is the content of this article:
>
> http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/vista.htm
>
> It states that Microsoft has provided it's own imaging function,
> ImageX, which is accessed from the Vista Recovery Environment via F8
> at boot up. The article goes on to state that Dell has taken
> advantage of this, and provides a factory image in ImageX, which is
> accessible through the Vista Recovery Enivronment (also). So, are
> there two ImageXs? One from Microsoft which restores only Vista, and
> another one from Dell which restores Vista and all other apps/drivers,
> as shipped from the factory? I don't have a Vista machine (yet), so I
> can't check it out myself.
>
> Anyone?
>
My Vista laptop only has one restore partition and one diagnostic
partition. The restore is D: and is called recovery and is NTFS format.
"Boris" <boris-badenough@excite.com> wrote in message news:1183128868.976263.84160@i13g2000prf.googlegro ups.com...
> As Tom said, the OP had wiped the restore partition, but still had the
> diagnostics partition available. Thus, Sudohnim's question to me.
I actually asked two. The first one is no longer important for things
have been cleared up. The second one relates to people wanting to
clean their system and/or hard drive of sensitive data before they
get rid of it. Which is something you apparently wanted to do. It's
important, so I'll try again one last time...
Do you or does anyone believe that using Dell restore wipes (as in
overwrites) ALL of the files/data in the OS partition? I've never
used Dell restore let alone used it and then examined disk sectors
afterwards. So I don't know, but would have to assume it doesn't
until that is proven wrong. IF it doesn't, an explicit wipe before
the restore would be in order.
On Jun 29, 2:11 pm, "Sudohnim" <sudoh...@example.invalid> wrote:
> "Boris" <boris-badeno...@excite.com> wrote in messagenews:1183128868.976263.84160@i13g2000prf.go oglegroups.com...
> > As Tom said, the OP had wiped the restore partition, but still had the
> > diagnostics partition available. Thus, Sudohnim's question to me.
>
> I actually asked two. The first one is no longer important for things
> have been cleared up. The second one relates to people wanting to
> clean their system and/or hard drive of sensitive data before they
> get rid of it. Which is something you apparently wanted to do. It's
> important, so I'll try again one last time...
>
> Do you or does anyone believe that using Dell restore wipes (as in
> overwrites) ALL of the files/data in the OS partition? I've never
> used Dell restore let alone used it and then examined disk sectors
> afterwards. So I don't know, but would have to assume it doesn't
> until that is proven wrong. IF it doesn't, an explicit wipe before
> the restore would be in order.
Yes, you did ask two questions. Sorry, I can't answer your second
question.
After I used Dell (Symantec) restore, I rebooted the machine to see
what would come up. The Microsoft Windows EULA came up, and at that
point, I shut the machine down with the power button, and that was the
last time I touched the machine. I didn't not wipe C: before I did
the Dell restore, and I didn't check the hard drive after I did the
restore. I assumed that all user data was gone, because restore is
supposed to set C: back to factory shipping condition.
To go one level deeper in detail, if the Dell/Symantec Ghost restore does a
quick format, then the data that has not been overwritten by the restore can
still be found using relatively advanced forensic software. If Ghost does a
full format along the way, then even more advanced forensic software would be
needed to find some of the old data.
For the truly parenoid, like the US DoD, use DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) to
overwrite the entire drive or selected partitions enough times with enough write
patterns that the wiped drive meets DoD standards for wiping... Ben Myers
On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:57:22 -0700, Boris <boris-badenough@excite.com> wrote:
>On Jun 29, 2:11 pm, "Sudohnim" <sudoh...@example.invalid> wrote:
>> "Boris" <boris-badeno...@excite.com> wrote in messagenews:1183128868.976263.84160@i13g2000prf.go oglegroups.com...
>> > As Tom said, the OP had wiped the restore partition, but still had the
>> > diagnostics partition available. Thus, Sudohnim's question to me.
>>
>> I actually asked two. The first one is no longer important for things
>> have been cleared up. The second one relates to people wanting to
>> clean their system and/or hard drive of sensitive data before they
>> get rid of it. Which is something you apparently wanted to do. It's
>> important, so I'll try again one last time...
>>
>> Do you or does anyone believe that using Dell restore wipes (as in
>> overwrites) ALL of the files/data in the OS partition? I've never
>> used Dell restore let alone used it and then examined disk sectors
>> afterwards. So I don't know, but would have to assume it doesn't
>> until that is proven wrong. IF it doesn't, an explicit wipe before
>> the restore would be in order.
>
>Yes, you did ask two questions. Sorry, I can't answer your second
>question.
>
>After I used Dell (Symantec) restore, I rebooted the machine to see
>what would come up. The Microsoft Windows EULA came up, and at that
>point, I shut the machine down with the power button, and that was the
>last time I touched the machine. I didn't not wipe C: before I did
>the Dell restore, and I didn't check the hard drive after I did the
>restore. I assumed that all user data was gone, because restore is
>supposed to set C: back to factory shipping condition.
"Ben Myers" <ben_myers_spam_me_not@charter.net> wrote in message news:mb1b839hiqdl16bj2h3gdpjs0kh2mpb6am@4ax.com...
> To go one level deeper in detail, if the Dell/Symantec Ghost restore does a
> quick format, then the data that has not been overwritten by the restore can
> still be found using relatively advanced forensic software.
I think you would agree that manually examining and conducting some searches
on the sectors would require but a very basic sector inspector/editor. I would
agree that more sophisticated tools would be necessary to extract data from
encoded files and perform elaborate searches for interesting data. I think given
that simple approaches using widely available, often free, and easily developed
software might be all it takes to burn you, we could save some time and agree
that users should make sure that the sectors are overwritten at least once. Yes?
Well, yes. I run DBAN and have it do three DoD type passes on a drive. That's
what I do with used hard drives that show up here, either to re-use the drives
or to give a client the assurance that the data on his used drive will not be
compromised.
Using a basic sector inspector is really going about it the hard way. More
sophisticated tools are readily available. Just poke and prod around the open
source community... Ben Myers
On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:14:46 -0400, "Sudohnim" <sudohnim@example.invalid> wrote:
>
>"Ben Myers" <ben_myers_spam_me_not@charter.net> wrote in message news:mb1b839hiqdl16bj2h3gdpjs0kh2mpb6am@4ax.com...
>> To go one level deeper in detail, if the Dell/Symantec Ghost restore does a
>> quick format, then the data that has not been overwritten by the restore can
>> still be found using relatively advanced forensic software.
>
>I think you would agree that manually examining and conducting some searches
>on the sectors would require but a very basic sector inspector/editor. I would
>agree that more sophisticated tools would be necessary to extract data from
>encoded files and perform elaborate searches for interesting data. I think given
>that simple approaches using widely available, often free, and easily developed
>software might be all it takes to burn you, we could save some time and agree
>that users should make sure that the sectors are overwritten at least once. Yes?
Re: Removing the hidden partition 
Linear Mode
