Digitally sanitizing used storage media

[WilliamSB]

Hi all!

Not really gaming related but I thought you fine folks still might know since I reckon some of you encounter second hand storage media from time to time.

I recently bought a few old used mp3 players out of nostalgia, and I'm wondering about the best way to make them safe for use with my computer. They're irivers and sandisks and they have hdd's and flash memorys but no ways to format the storage from their respective menus. I'm hesitant to plug them into my computer since I don't know what the previous owners might've accidentally put in there, malware-wise etc.

Any suggestions?

 

[SylverReZ]

If you have any USB flash drives lying around, I highly suggest archiving them as a disk image (.img) file using something like Win32DiskImager. Then, you could use 'binwalk' to datamine the image to find any files that were lost after a quick format.

 

[fringle]

If you're scared to plug them into your current windows install, one option would be to disconnect your current hdd and install a new copy of windows on an old hdd and keep it offline while you format the devices. Once you're done, remove the drive, plug your original back in and your back to where you were.

 

[tech3475]

If you're scared to plug them into your current windows install, one option would be to disconnect your current hdd and install a new copy of windows on an old hdd and keep it offline while you format the devices. Once you're done, remove the drive, plug your original back in and your back to where you were.

Don't even need to install windows, just use diskpart from the command prompt to wipe it from the Windows install media.

Alternative use a Linux live distro, something like Ubuntu, which would allow you to explore the drive and wipe it relatively safely using e.g. gparted.

I've also seen AVs come with the ability to create recovery media and there's the various 'WinPE' based environments, although you may just want to use Linux in the case of the latter.

 

[WilliamSB]

Don't even need to install windows, just use diskpart from the command prompt to wipe it from the Windows install media.

Alternative use a Linux live distro, something like Ubuntu, which would allow you to explore the drive and wipe it relatively safely using e.g. gparted.

I've also seen AVs come with the ability to create recovery media and there's the various 'WinPE' based environments, although you may just want to use Linux in the case of the latter.

Thank you all for your replies! Tech3475, your alternative sounds easiest. How is a live distro with gparted only relatively safe though?

 

[sno]

Thank you all for your replies! Tech3475, your alternative sounds easiest. How is a live distro with gparted only relatively safe though?

Lemme take a crack at this. So.. Basically a live distro is nowadays booted from usb.. It is like a temporary and not permanent environment safe to do things like what you are asking about. Usually.. It lives in ram until you turn off or restart PC.. So even in the off chance that there is anything malicious, you can always turn it off. If you're extra paranoid, just keep it offline until you're done. Personally I would reformat the usb with gparted before plugging it into any "main" windows environment you use for everyday. Like, if anything was "bad" on it, usually you would have nothing to worry about because like I said, turning off or restarting purges anything at least on the RAM.. Unless you're using frugal, maybe.. but not really.... Sooooooooooooo...........

Just reformat with gparted on a live distro once you are done with your work. It has a GUI so it's really easy to follow just make sure you select the USB and not your main drive by accident.... I usually just delete whatever partition(s) are on there and then reformat to NTFS cus windows..... That's as basic as I can break it down. tech3475 is right about fat32. Forgot this at least if they're old... you would also save on space.

 

[tech3475]

Thank you all for your replies! Tech3475, your alternative sounds easiest. How is a live distro with gparted only relatively safe though?

Just covering my arse in case something goes wrong e.g. you somehow nuke the wrong drive .

However, I'd reformat as FAT32 instead of NTFS, since that's more likely to be comaptible with the devices firmware.

 

[WilliamSB]

Thank you all for your thorough answers, I really appreciate it!

One last one: in general, did old mp3-players usually have their OS (or firmware, or whatever you'd call it) on a hidden partition of the main storage, or on a separate flash memory altogether? Asking since I don't want to risk bricking them when formatting.

 

[sno]

Thank you all for your thorough answers, I really appreciate it!

One last one: in general, did old mp3-players usually have their OS (or firmware, or whatever you'd call it) on a hidden partition of the main storage, or on a separate flash memory altogether? Asking since I don't want to risk bricking them when formatting.

I never had one that stopped working because of reformatting. It's most likely separate for that very reason but I won't dismiss the possibility 100%. Gonna have to be willing to take some risk. Actually what can be really gimmicky and annoying are special drivers that might need to be installed to access it. I would say that's kind of rare to see though. If that ends up being the case, doing it on linux would be more difficult unless it just magically works for some reason.

 

[tech3475]

Thank you all for your thorough answers, I really appreciate it!

One last one: in general, did old mp3-players usually have their OS (or firmware, or whatever you'd call it) on a hidden partition of the main storage, or on a separate flash memory altogether? Asking since I don't want to risk bricking them when formatting.

Depends on the player, IIRC formatting an ipod required restoring the firmware but I dont recall having such issues with most others except where using custom firmware like Rockbox is used.

If you want to be safe, trying getting hold of any firmware updates and/or image thw drive.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

[Paranoia]
Hope you all realize that plugging in unknown USB devices carries a lot of risks for the software, the personal data and the hardware
Same for "I found some USB stick, let's see what's inside"
If an adversary wants to harm you, a live system is not really doing anything to actively prevent damage. Some attacks are way easier on a live Linux than on a properly configured installed Windows or Linux
[/Paranoia]

Unlikely for an old MP3 player to have been modified for malicious purposes, but… if one wants to rule out an attack succeeding:
The easiest and safest method in my opinion is just using a worthless offline computer.