is it possible to completely wipe that harddrive, I was told that just formatting won't help ! any other ways
I would be greatful for some help
2006-11-23 10:23:56 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
You can do a "military wipe" of the hard drive which will remove the data. You can get a wiping utility free at www.majorgeeks.com
2006-11-23 10:31:51 · answer #1 · answered by Sir J 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
How sensitive?
An actual formatting of the hard drive will wipe everything out in such a manner that it is impossible to retrieve using anything a normal person would have access to.
Now, if the NSA is going crack open your hard drive and remove the pieces and start analyzing it with special equipment, they might be able to get something off of that (it's not guaranteed though). There are programs that will go through and rewrite every single byte on your computer to make sure this can't happen. However, that is not necessary for the most part.
2006-11-23 10:29:14 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have done a computer forensics course and I can tell you that formatting will not get rid of anything. You can format five times and still people can 'carve' data out. Use a software called Eraser. What it does is it overwrites that 'area' on the hard disk with gibberish or all 0's or 1's. Once you install the software you will see all the options. Its pretty easy to use.
2006-11-23 11:50:39 · answer #3 · answered by mentora03 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hello,
I take it your question is about how to permanently remove sensative data & files & images,etc from your hard disk drive?
One thing should be made clear straight away, the normal delete doesnt remove the data or files from the disk drive. If a file or data is just deleted via windows recycling bin it can very easily & quickly be recovered or undeleted using undelete software.
**Formating will wipe data & files, programs & the OS (windows, or linux etc) completely from the disk. However the still sensitive data can still be recovered from the drive if someone wanted to go that far.
**If you want to ensure the sensitive data, files,etc are permanently, definately & completely removed from the drive. The most highly recommended method is overwritting the data, clusters and sectors of the disk with random bits. Heres a freeware program that does just this, its called "Eraser" and you can find it here:-
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
or here also
http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/
A highly recommended program 10 out of 10
IR
2006-11-23 10:56:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a format version that has a /g (government) tag which lets you specify the number of write and erase operations that are performed on a file or hard drive. I just forget who makes this version. It might be Norton,but I'm not sure. However, for really sensitive data the only successful method is to open up the hard drive, remove the disk pack and crush and grind it into little bits.
2006-11-23 10:29:40 · answer #5 · answered by St N 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You can get products that try and do a better job of erasing the magnetic pattern left by a file on the disk, but I have worked on top secret stuff, and the only sure way of destroying the data was to crush or incinerate the drives.
2006-11-23 10:33:52 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm guessing that whats on your hard drive is illegal.
So format it, and replace it with a new one. Make the old one disappear and thats that sorted. Anything else will leave the possibility of your hard drive being rolled back and your sensitive data being found. And you getting in trouble.
2006-11-23 10:38:16 · answer #7 · answered by dark.crusade 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why not just take the hard drive out and keep it for your self.
The ability to recover data from a functioning hard drive has to do with how much do you want to spend!
The government physically break hard drives to prevent data recovery. Equipment exists to read formatted hard drives, even hard drives that have been reformatted and then written over!
Most people are not that interested in your data to pay that cost!
If you fear the government, then take the hard drive out! They can read it if they want to. PERIOD!
2006-11-23 10:38:29 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, install this software to complete wipe out data from the harddrive
http://download.sourceforge.net/eraser/Eraser57Setup.zip
2006-11-23 10:28:29 · answer #9 · answered by xScOde 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes you can. Use Eraser utitily to do this task. Download it from
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015&package_id=65323
and read about it from
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
Simply formatiing your hard will not help you. Data recovery softwares can easily recover deleted and formatted data upto certain number of writes over the hard disk.
2006-11-23 10:37:32 · answer #10 · answered by Sunny 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋