Permanently wipe all traces of a file
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From: Brian V on 5 Feb 2010 21:45 How does a person go about erasing absolutly everything on a hd? Is it sucessful? I read that you can keep finding stuff, and keep finding it again. Can you erase individual paritions? If I were to get rid of my computer (sell or give away) this info can help me. I make some music, and deal with video and images. Some of that could be a copyright issue or a legal trouble for me I don't need. I am not a professional musician, director, etc. What if I got there though? And if I deal with other peoples personal stuff, I need to be able to delete the stuff permanently.
From: C on 6 Feb 2010 06:10 Brian V wrote: > How does a person go about erasing absolutly everything on a hd? Is it > sucessful? I read that you can keep finding stuff, and keep finding it again. > > Can you erase individual paritions? > > If I were to get rid of my computer (sell or give away) this info can help > me. I make some music, and deal with video and images. Some of that could be > a copyright issue or a legal trouble for me I don't need. I am not a > professional musician, director, etc. What if I got there though? And if I > deal with other peoples personal stuff, I need to be able to delete the stuff > permanently. The only way to permanently delete data off a hard disk is to destroy the hard disk. Give it a spin in your microwave; run over it with a semi truck; boil it in water; find a large magnet; hydrochloric acid is also good. I'm sure if you use your imagination, you can think of other ways to destroy a hard drive. Permanently delete data and not destroying the hard drive isn't possible with modern forensic techniques. That said, these modern forensic techniques don't come cheap so doing a complete format and reinstalling your operating system should be enough ;:) -- C
From: Percival P. Cassidy on 6 Feb 2010 07:57 On 02/06/10 06:10 am, C wrote: >> How does a person go about erasing absolutly everything on a hd? Is it >> sucessful? I read that you can keep finding stuff, and keep finding it >> again. > The only way to permanently delete data off a hard disk is to destroy > the hard disk. Give it a spin in your microwave; run over it with a semi > truck; boil it in water; find a large magnet; hydrochloric acid is also > good. I'm sure if you use your imagination, you can think of other ways > to destroy a hard drive. Permanently delete data and not destroying the > hard drive isn't possible with modern forensic techniques. That said, > these modern forensic techniques don't come cheap so doing a complete > format and reinstalling your operating system should be enough ;:) You are saying that writing some random pattern of bits in place of the pattern of bits that represented a piece of music or an image will still leave the original music or image accessible? I find that difficult to believe. Perce
From: C on 6 Feb 2010 07:58 Percival P. Cassidy wrote: > On 02/06/10 06:10 am, C wrote: > >>> How does a person go about erasing absolutly everything on a hd? Is it >>> sucessful? I read that you can keep finding stuff, and keep finding it >>> again. > >> The only way to permanently delete data off a hard disk is to destroy >> the hard disk. Give it a spin in your microwave; run over it with a semi >> truck; boil it in water; find a large magnet; hydrochloric acid is also >> good. I'm sure if you use your imagination, you can think of other ways >> to destroy a hard drive. Permanently delete data and not destroying the >> hard drive isn't possible with modern forensic techniques. That said, >> these modern forensic techniques don't come cheap so doing a complete >> format and reinstalling your operating system should be enough ;:) > > You are saying that writing some random pattern of bits in place of the > pattern of bits that represented a piece of music or an image will still > leave the original music or image accessible? > > I find that difficult to believe. > > Perce Trust me, forensic techniques can find anything. Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant. Research it and you will change your beliefs. -- C
From: Ken Blake, MVP on 6 Feb 2010 13:17
On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 18:45:01 -0800, Brian V <BrianV(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > How does a person go about erasing absolutly everything on a hd? Is it > sucessful? I read that you can keep finding stuff, and keep finding it again. > > Can you erase individual paritions? > > If I were to get rid of my computer (sell or give away) this info can help > me. I make some music, and deal with video and images. Some of that could be > a copyright issue or a legal trouble for me I don't need. I am not a > professional musician, director, etc. What if I got there though? And if I > deal with other peoples personal stuff, I need to be able to delete the stuff > permanently. There is no simple answer. It depends on how paranoid you want to be. Realize that no matter *what* you do, there is always a remnant of what was written still present on the disk, and using sophisticated techniques, a determined invader can sometimes recover it.For that reason, the US government doesn't rely on any software techniques to destroy really sensitive data, but physically melts the drive in a furnace. Most of us don't need that kind of security. Depending on what is on the drive, and recognizing that most people will neither know how, nor want to bother trying, to recover any old data on the drive, a simple format is sufficient for most people. And for the enormous majority of people a zero-fill is more than sufficient. If it were me, I wouldn't go any further. than that. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003 Please Reply to the Newsgroup |