Where can I find (government approved) degaussing software? Or rather what is the name of a package?

Question

Degaussing software permanently erases any trace of data from a hard drive...If you erase a file its really not gone.. it can be picked up by a computer forensics person...

Answer 1

unless i'm missing something i wouldn't have thought that a piece of software alone could remove excess magnetic fields from a computer (or any other device).

computer monitors and such which have the option of degaussing normally have within them a physical piece of hardware called a degaussing coil which is what does the actual degaussing.

no degaussing coil = no degaussing.

or have i missed the point of your question and you know something i don't?

EDIT: then it's nothing to do with degaussing per se, you're after software to wipe disks not something to remove magnetic fields - when the government wipe discs they use a combination of software and hardware to do it.

try one of these software products:
http://killdisk.com/
http://www.smartpctools.com/data_scrubber/index1.html

it's worth noting that the only way to truly make data irretrievable is to smash the disc with a hammer then burn it til it melts - regardless of what software is used to wipe a hard drive there will always be traces left.

Answer 2

There is no such thing. Most monitors that require occasional degaussing have it built in. At one time we used to have to have a degaussing tool when we all used magnetic tapes (gee remember those?) but I haven't seen one of those for years.