Zeroed vs. Never written

From: Michael Edwards (medwards@digital-legal.com)
Date: Fri Feb 21 2003 - 15:36:28 PST


Greetings to the list.

I am a user of AccessData's FTK, among other tools.

What I am currently looking for is information on how to discern the 
difference between areas of a disk that have never been written to, vs. a 
disk that has been wiped or zeroed out.

Does the free / slack space of a new, off the factory hard disk always 
contain the same data, or does is vary from manufacturer and low level format?

I am aware that different zeroing tools can write "random" data. Is it a 
general practice when not writing random data to write zeros, or do some 
products use another particular value?

While searching the archives and Internet, I did see a bit of information 
that some disk wipe tool write a particular signature at the start of an 
overwrite.

Can anyone provide any links or information on this?

Sorry if it's been discussed before - I bet it has - but I couldn't find it 
searching the archives. The search tool seems a bit problematic.

Thanks in advance for any info!


Michael Edwards
Blank & Associates P.S.  -  206.256.9699 x36
2001 Western Avenue, Suite 250  -  Seattle, Washington 98121

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:  The contents of this message are intended solely 
for the person to whom this message is addressed, and may be protected from 
disclosure or dissemination by the attorney-client privilege or other 
guarantee of confidentiality.  If you believe you have received this 
message in error, please notify the sender at 
<mailto:medwards@digital-legal.com>medwards@digital-legal.com and destroy 
all copies.  


-----------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided by the SecurityFocus ARIS analyzer service.
For more information on this free incident handling, management 
and tracking system please see: http://aris.securityfocus.com



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Feb 22 2003 - 12:31:19 PST