How do you securely delete data from a drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter
  • Start date Start date
Peter said:
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?

Plastic Explosive is reasonably soft and pliable and perfect for permanently
erasing data from a hard drive.

Seriously though: what are you trying to erase that needs to be done
securely? If it is just a drive that you wish to prevent personal data
being recovered from it then one of the many secure deletion utilities
available for free is way way more than adequate. In fact deleteing the
file and over writing it with another is generally adequate. If, on the
other hand the drive contains military grade secrets, then refer to my first
paragraph.
 
Peter said:
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?

Not an XP question, but I use Eraser (http://eraser.heidi.ie/). It can
securely delete your the data and wipe your the free space; can also create
a DBAN (http://www.dban.org/) "Nuke Boot Disk" for blatting partition(s) at
boot-time. There is a choice of depth levels (different algorithms & number
of passes) - because "securely" is a relative term.

Failing that, Googlus Amicus Est.
 
Olórin said:
Not an XP question, but I use Eraser (http://eraser.heidi.ie/). It can
securely delete your the data and wipe your the free space; can also
create a DBAN (http://www.dban.org/) "Nuke Boot Disk" for blatting
partition(s) at boot-time. There is a choice of depth levels (different
algorithms & number of passes) - because "securely" is a relative term.

I tried eraser and on the whole I like it, but I got a curious result.

IE stopped working right after I ran eraser to clean unused disk space, C
drive.
The symptoms are IE thinks it is connected to a website, but it fails to
display most of the screen.

A shutdown and start cured it.

Is IE using disk blocks in sloppy ways?

I'm running XP SP3, and IE 7.0.
Failing that, Googlus Amicus Est.

Googlensis teum amicum est.

Grumble, grumble, grumble. :-)
 
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