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How do I wipe deleted files?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
I know that when you delete files there still remains evidence of the file. Is there a way of getting rid of this info?
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Some bioses have a "sanitize" hard disk option which scans through it and should be able to delete every reference to any SW on the disk. So, boot up your computer, press f2, f10, esc or they key that takes you into bios/computer setup. It should usually appear on the screen right after the power is turned on which key to press. But be careful in there, don't mess around with settings you don't know about.
One sure way of erasing stuff is to physically destroy the hard drive. But that may be over the top.
My thoughts exactly. Someone has been naughty.
Just because you lock your front door, doesn't mean you have anything to hide in your house. How would you feel if someone had access to your computer or mobile phone and was reading all your private messages and emails?
I use both data wiping software and encryption on my laptop.... I don't have anything to hide. I think you'll find this type of security is advised, spose you have your family pics, bank account information, phone numbers and addresses, CV's, letters, all stored on you PC or laptop and it gets stolen? These things aren't the type of things you want people to get hold of, I have pics of my nieces and nephews, bank logins, bank statements, email and online shop login stored in my browser, I don't really want my laptop to be stolen and the robbers have all this stuff to browse though.
Truecrypt's pre-boot authentication does the job just nicely in terms of encryption.
You don't know what I've got in my house
They used one of those full delete programs, then they ran a magnet over the disk, then they set it on fire.
The police computer team were able to recover a significant amount of information still from the drive.....
That's why it's better to encrypt. I wonder what type of wiping methods they used? The Gutmann method would be safest if a little OTT, afew random passes would suffice to stop software recovery of any actual data being in tact.
using a hammer is the best way.
though encryption is good, it implies guilt.
I'm pretty sure that after smashing open a drive with a lump hammer, destroying the platters and scattering the contents of the enclosure to the winds, noone's computer would be able to recover anything significant.
I think it's about time people realised that computer security is as important as securing your house or car.... why does encryption automatically imply guilt? What about if I had a safe in my house, does that imply guilt because it is exactly the same as a digital safe apart from one is physical and one is virtual.
Also, reformatting your drive 7 times won't do much unless it was wiped with security software such as Dban (free/opensource) using for example 7 passes of random data, even then that is slight paranoia as 3 passes would suffice. Using a hammer isn't the best way because as long as the disk platters are in tact (even if they are broke/scratched/burnt) data is possibly recoverable.
I cannot remember the website but a few years ago some uni students brought a bunch of hard drives from eBay to see how many had data left on them, I think 27 out of 30 had personal info on them... if people want an easy way to steal your identity, it's so easy just to buy cheap used hard drives off eBay and then look on the disk for data, even deleted data from reformatting is easily recoverable from software you can buy on the net.
Protect yourself, wipe data that is personal to you if you do not need it any more and encrypt data you do want to keep. If your paranoid encrypt the entire disk and then erase.