A couple good Programs

[ZZman]

I found these on download.com and used them recently. They are good for really cleaning your computer and shredding deleted files so they can not be recovered. The other is used to change the registered name on the Windows XP to something other than your name. These would be good if you donate your computer or give it to someone else and want to clean it up first.

File Shredder 2: http://www.download.com/File-Shredder/3000-2144_4-10662831.html?tag=lst-1&cdlPid=10662832

XP Registered name changer: http://www.download.com/XP-Registered-Na...cdlPid=10586823

 

[John K]

I occasionally listen to a radio program where two guys talk computers and take calls. One is either a policeman or retired and/or works with law enforcement. He claims there isn't any file that can't be recovered, no matter how many times it has been overwritten. I don't understand it, but that is what I heard. I'm sure it would make it more difficult and time consuming. Anyone know anything about that? Even programs that write numbers over the file aren't full proof supposedly....

 

[d00df00d]

I have a feeling they just want you to think that. I'm not an expert but I don't see how it's physically possible.

 

[rshaw125]

What if you reformat the hard drive? It completely cleans it and you're staring over from scratch.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

He's wrong. After 7 times of writing (or data shredding) the deleted data, it doesn't come back.

Novell offers data shredding as an option on it's NSS file system on Linux. It is somewhat explained here:
http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2...ta/bqq4w37.html

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Originally Posted By: rshaw125
What if you reformat the hard drive? It completely cleans it and you're staring over from scratch.


Not necessarily. If the previous file tables can be recreated, so can the old data, assuming it hasn't been shredded.

 

[Shannow]

I thought that with a scanning electron microscope they could retrieve data from the fringes of the track.

 

[ZZman]

Well.....Unless you are a superspy or have lots of money and think the disk had something really good on it the effort and cost for recovery would not be worth it. This is good for everyday users and businesses with no big secrets. It can do DoD 5220-22.M (Government standard 7 pass) and another 7 pass and 35 pass shredding on the top settings.

The alternatives for this are a simple one pass which is not recommended as it does a poor job and there is easy recovery of the files overwritten this way. The two pass is somewhat more efficient, but still not too safe. DoD 5220-22.M is the first algorithm that can do some damage. It is a sanitization standard that clears out data remnants. It is a seven-pass wipe method using random characters, complements of characters and random data streams.

The next option is another seven-pass algorithm, but there isn't any data on it (nothing in the help menu works at the moment). And, my favorite, Guttman algorithm which employs 35 passes (combines 27 random-order passes with eight passes using random data).

As you probably realized up to now, employing an algorithm combining multiple passes will lead to increased times for the process to complete. If you want a good compromise between time and security DoD 5220-22.M is perfect for the job.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

To shred an entire drive, this free utility works like a champ: Darik's Boot-n-Nuke:
http://www.dban.org/download

 

[OVERKILL]

To shred an entire drive you get a really hot fire going and melt it. Hard drives are dirt cheap. If you've got something that incriminating on it, you could just melt it with oxy-acetylene as well.