Deleting Hard Drive File Traces?

toon_mad · 2 Mar 2012 at 15:53

Am going to be selling my laptop soon and one thing I don't want is the buyer looking at my deleted files.

I've wiped the Free Space a few times but using something like Recuva still lists the old filenames, even though they are not recoverable.

Is there a way to remove or at least mask the filenames for these unrecoverable files?

I wonder if Hirens Boot CD offers anything like this..

bledd · 2 Mar 2012 at 15:59

CClaener can wipe free space.

DBAN can wipe the whole drive

CaptainCrash · 2 Mar 2012 at 16:08

I wouldn't even think about selling on a PC without completely wiping the drive and reinstalling (a full format in Vista or 7 will zero-fill the drive, otherwise use DBAN first). It's far more foolproof from a security POV, and the new owner will be happier with a fresh install as well.

toon_mad · 2 Mar 2012 at 16:08

Will try DBAN cheers bledd.

I was using CCLeaner for the wipe free space but the filenames were still showing up in Recuva. Maybe I need to do more passes over it or something.

toon_mad · 3 Mar 2012 at 00:19

CaptainCrash said:
I wouldn't even think about selling on a PC without completely wiping the drive and reinstalling (a full format in Vista or 7 will zero-fill the drive, otherwise use DBAN first). It's far more foolproof from a security POV, and the new owner will be happier with a fresh install as well.

Obviously I was going to wipe and clean install Windows I always do. I was more worried about the deleted file fragments been held in the free space sectors of the disk.

Problem solved now anyway I just used more iterations with CCleaner. Took about 5 hours but no filenames or traces showing up with Recuva.

CaptainCrash · 3 Mar 2012 at 19:50

toon_mad said:
Obviously I was going to wipe and clean install Windows I always do. I was more worried about the deleted file fragments been held in the free space sectors of the disk.

Problem solved now anyway I just used more iterations with CCleaner. Took about 5 hours but no filenames or traces showing up with Recuva.

You seem to be misunderstanding the point I was making - a full format in Vista or Win7, or a disk wipe with DBAN will overwrite *every* sector of the disk, whether it was previously occupied or not. Nothing will be recoverable thereafter.

I'm glad you got it sorted to your satisfaction, but you've gone an unnecessarily long-winded way about it.

toon_mad · 3 Mar 2012 at 20:11

CaptainCrash said:
You seem to be misunderstanding the point I was making - a full format in Vista or Win7, or a disk wipe with DBAN will overwrite *every* sector of the disk, whether it was previously occupied or not. Nothing will be recoverable thereafter.

I'm glad you got it sorted to your satisfaction, but you've gone an unnecessarily long-winded way about it.

I've formatted Windows several times in the past and some files were still retrievable

better safe than sorry I say anyway

Pho · 3 Mar 2012 at 20:15

You probably did a quick format not a full format (which can take a long time). Quick format just marks everything as free space but doesn't wipe over the data.

toon_mad · 3 Mar 2012 at 20:28

Nope always do full format, Infact I always delete every partition first as I usually have a few, then create one single C: partition then full format.

CaptainCrash · 3 Mar 2012 at 21:27

toon_mad said:
I've formatted Windows several times in the past and some files were still retrievable

better safe than sorry I say anyway

You must have been doing something wrong, there's absolutely no way any usable data can be recovered after a full format in Vista or Windows 7.

XP is different as a full format doesn't zero-fill the drive, hence why you need DBAN or similar.

toon_mad · 5 Mar 2012 at 21:29

Well I never said about actual recovering the data, just that they would show up regardless in file recovery programs.

Its all sorted anyhow.