Computer help

[jim geary]

Hi folks.
My question is .... Is it possible to delete something completely from your
computer? If you don't want someone reading all your stuff can you wipe
info so it won't come back?
Thanks for any help or advise. Jim G.

[Todd]

Hi folks.
My question is .... Is it possible to delete something completely from your
computer? If you don't want someone reading all your stuff can you wipe
info so it won't come back?
Thanks for any help or advise. Jim G.


Yes, but you have to have access to a government level wipe program. Then reinstall windows and you are ready to go.

I have never heard of another solution. Hopefully someone else has.


Otherwise you just have to be lucky and the hard drive would have to overwrite what you want rid of with something else. Which is what the gav. level wipe is. Writes over the entire thing.

[Mike M]

There are alot of utilities that can selectivly wipe individual files or folders and still leave your operating system in tact.

Do a google search or try www.cnet.com then go to downloads and do a search.

[Breadfan]

Best way is to do the entire drive.

Try this: http://www.killdisk.com/

Or this: http://www.hammersource.com/?gclid=CI3vwOD-8oMCFSCULAodXgqqKw

Or even this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrochloric_acid

I have a number of good writeups on how even a format or lowlevel format can still reveal past writes. The best way to remove data is 7-10 bit flip writes (0 to 1 and 1 to 0) to make it difficult to see what was there before. (It has to do with if you turn a 1 to a 0, the bit is actually now say a 0.05, so when you write a 1 you now have a 1.05, therefore you can deduce the previous bit was a 1...it gets technical VERY fast.)

In most industries the hammer is a good method, followed by incineration or an acid bath.

Typically for a home user a KillDisk application should work. If tossing out a computer you should remove the data from the drive or physically destroy the drive otherwise someone could scavenge it and read personal data off the disk.

[KillJoy]

I have access to a DOD wipe machine. It is SLOOOOWWWWWW.

KillJoy

[magindat]

Hi folks.
My question is .... Is it possible to delete something completely from your
computer? If you don't want someone reading all your stuff can you wipe
info so it won't come back?
Thanks for any help or advise. Jim G.

Jim,
Delete and empty the recylce bin. Then do a disk cleanup and a defrag. It is likely that the space the deleted file used will be overwritten.

When a file is deleted it is only removed from the File Allocation Table or FAT. The file is not gone, just the reference to it. It's like a library with reference cards. That file's card is removed. The space is then allowed to be re-used. A defrag will typically re-use the space as files are made contiguous.

Normal individuals can't recover deleted files without some sort of recovery utility. They would have to be really looking. Further, there is forensic disk investigation which takes such recovery to surprising limits.

The utilities decribed in earlier posts refer to full wiping of the file space. This would be to thwart forensic recovery of the info.

So, If your just hiding from your wife and kids, do my first paragraph. If you are afraid of the law, find a Department of Defense approved 1/0 wipe utility and cover your butt.

Hell, if you're REALLY scared, wipe the drive with a utility, the take the drive apart, demag the platters, then shred them and throw the pieces away in different dumpsters around town!

Hope this helps!

[fastblackmerc]

If you goto www.pc.ibm.com/support and search on "secure data disposal" you find a free utiltiy that will creat diskette(s) to do various (low, medium & high) DoD level scrubs. It's a 12MB file so if your on dialup it may take some time.

[gohogs]

Search google for a program called eraser53. It will allow you to shred individual files, or your hard disk slack space, to lots of standards including DOD (Department of Defense). If you shred your slack space on your hard drive, plan to do it overnight as it shreds by overwritng empty areas multiple times. You pick the number of overwrites.

[Breadfan]

Beyond anything else, if disposing of the system, donating, etc, it's a safe thing to do. Probably going overboard to KillDisk but in case someone malicious gets the machine you're ok.

A fair amount of scumbags dumpster dive for HDD's, they probably wouldn't bother with one that's formatted since they can get so many totally open ones.

Oh and just becuase your Windows login is passowrd protected means nothing, I mount your disk as a secondary drive on a Windows box I'm an admin on and I can see everything on it. The only tough part would be if you're encrypting your filesystem.

[ckadiddle]

Definitely use a DOD mil spec hard drive wipe tool if the drive will be reused. Be prepared to let it run overnight or a few days depending on the size of the hard drive. Mil spec wiping randomly writes bits over the entire hard drive multiple times, thats why it takes so darn long. Otherwise open her up and smash the platters into little bitty pieces.

[jawz101]

Darik's Boot and Nuke (http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban) - free floppy that erases hard drives
Wipe Methods - Quick Erase, Canadian RCMP TSSIT OPS-II Standard Wipe, American DoD 5220-22.M Standard Wipe, Gutmann Wipe, PRNG Stream Wipe

Eraser (http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/) - free (i think this is the one gohog mentioned)
Based on Darik's B&N above
This one erases unused space on a pc while you're still using it.

Also, hard drive manuf. have free utilities to erase hard drives. I know Maxtor has one called MaxBlast that fills the hard drive with ones and zeros.

Info Security types say that it takes 2-3 or up to 12 passes to make a drive completely unrecoverable.
At the hospital I work at we have a machine that degausses them and then we take a lead pipe to them.

[usafsniper]

A program I highly recommend for it's many useful abilities is System Suite 6. It's not free, but very effective as an overall utility program suite. It come with a secure erase function, see this link http://www.v-com.com/product/SecurErase_Home.html for details, that is part of the suite, or you can buy the secure erase as a stand alone product. The Suite is the better deal though. It will do all of this...

1. Erase the entire drive, or select a specific partition
2. Validates erasure success
3. Fast Custom and Government SecurErase options
4. Government SecurErase option conforms to DoD standards
5. Works with all PC based operating systems including all Windows, Linux, Solaris, OS/2, NetWare and more!
6. Runs even if OS no longer is working or stable
7. No limits to drive size
8. Creates a Certificate of Erasure

[Dr Caleb]

I have access to a DOD wipe machine. It is SLOOOOWWWWWW.

KillJoy

We have a DOD/RCMP spec eraser at work. It as doubles as a duplicator, and can duplicate 6 drives at a time. But a wipe takes a coupe days for 100g disks.

I swear to you, this actually happened. A new tech was told to wipe a couple hundred drives. So what he did was wipe one, then use the duplicate feature on the rest.
:stupid:

If you want the information gone, use an in-operating system wipe. If you want to be sure it's gone, use a DOD/Military grade wipe. The latter is not quick, and is not cheap.

[Heavy351]

Depends on what it is you want to loose... is it what you have or where you have been? Torching what you have is not as hard as covering where you have been...

Do at least what everyone else says in regards to cleaning up the drive...


You need a utility to torch your index.dat files (everywhere you have ever been is in that file) Or better yet ditch IE for Firefox. go look for a utility called "index.DAT file viewer" for a real wake up call.:eek:


I use the very popular and free PGP (pretty good privacy) This was the first and still the best non-government crypto software.

The program has a "freespace wiper" that will go over the drive 26 times.

6.0.2i is the last version I think that you can get the "virtual disk" function for free. 128 and 168 bit encryption make someone getting to the files very very unlikely. The software creates a file that when you type in the passphrase creates a nice mapped hard drive for you. everything you put in there is secured. Read up on it....

This program is good enough that the feds tried to prosecute the author for publishing the source code in text format thus getting around the rules on exporting cryto tech to other countries .... Good reading here http://www.cdt.org/crypto/

When I used to be really paranoid and traveled with a company laptop I made a encrypted virtual disk on a DVD-RW and put all my sensitive stuff there and took it with me. Also buy a lot of ram and loose the pagefile and hibernation files.

[Smokie]

Oxygen/Acetylene torch.....:flamer: