perminately deleting data

dannywaugh1 · 20 Nov 2007 at 19:08

how do i perminately deleting data from my hdd? because i do know that when you delete something via recycle bin then empty it it goes but its stil on the hdd and can in most cases be recovered. is there anyway to do this?

Blackhawk47 · 20 Nov 2007 at 19:40

not as such you see it will never perminately delete data . it just says that it is fine to over write that sector of the harddisk or the area on the disk where the data is stored.

you could say its kind of a safety thing , incase you do delete anything by accident and you have to get it back.

correct me someone if i am wrong ?

Sarduk · 20 Nov 2007 at 19:44

Use the shredder function in SpyBot - it will delete and perform an overwrite X number of times.

semi-pro waster · 20 Nov 2007 at 20:25

If you really really want to make sure then try something like DBAN, however you actually format the whole drive to do so and then overwrite a number of times. Any particular reason why you are so concerned about people retrieving your data? I obviously don't know for certain but without wishing to seem rude I somehow doubt most people would ever care enough about what you have on your hard drive to go to the lengths of trying to recover it.

deuse · 20 Nov 2007 at 20:27

The only way to make sure no one gets files off your hard drive is
to put a hole in the platters.

Thats it.

semi-pro waster · 20 Nov 2007 at 20:33

deuse said:
The only way to make sure no one gets files off your hard drive is
to put a hole in the platters.

Thats it.

Technically you'd need to grind them to dust to be absolutely certain, they could otherwise be viewed under an electron microscope but that is serious dedication and you'd have to be in serious trouble for anyone to attempt it. If you are in that deep I'd suggest a non-extraditable country as being your best option.

C64 · 20 Nov 2007 at 20:33

credit card info for one lol

deuse · 20 Nov 2007 at 20:54

semi-pro waster said:
If you are in that deep I'd suggest a non-extraditable country as being your best option.

sammie377 · 20 Nov 2007 at 21:34

semi-pro waster said:
Technically you'd need to grind them to dust to be absolutely certain, they could otherwise be viewed under an electron microscope but that is serious dedication and you'd have to be in serious trouble for anyone to attempt it. If you are in that deep I'd suggest a non-extraditable country as being your best option.

Your spot on, a friend works in recovery in fraud and they recovered a drive that had been smashed with a hammer of some kind, like really broken up and they did it, he recovered some info from a PC I was working on that had a companies DATA on which they didn't back up, although that would be a real task for some I took him the old broken drive along with a new one to put the DATA on dropped it off about 7PM one night picked it up 7PM the next day all done cost me a bottle of wine.

Vampire · 20 Nov 2007 at 21:57

Modifying a BBQ into a makeshift furnace works quite nicely, you end up with a big blob of alloy with various steel bits and bobs sticking out of it.

Drilling holes in it and dropping it in the middle of the Irish sea works ok too.

Ok yes, I'm cautious about my data security. :rolleyes: