D
Dr. Jai Maharaj
Wiping out hard drive needs some software
By James Coates
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Q. I am planning to sell my laptop (Toshiba Satellite
2800 series, about five years old) and want to know how I
go about wiping out my hard drive of any personal
information.
I've been told that just reloading the operating software
(Windows XP) will do this, but I want to know for sure.
- Alexis Alvarez-Suzuki @aol.com
A. Here's your answer in a nutshell A.A., yes and no.
By hauling out the original CDs for system recovery and
then following the directions to reformat the hard drive
and reinstall the operating system will cover a good
chunk of the hard drive. That will make it difficult for
a techno crook to eke out any information left by your
first go-around. I would do just that and sleep like a
baby.
But if you told me that a bunch of guys wearing Geek
Squad white shirts and narrow black ties were seen
dragging that laptop out of my garbage bin, I would wake
up from my baby sleep and have a cow.
The only way to be 100 percent sure that nobody with
computer talents can ferret out some stuff from a hard
drive is to use software that writes a 0 or a 1 to each
spot on the drive. Even then, Pentagon standards call for
repeating the write-over several times.
The problem is that somebody with an electron microscope
could scan the metal plate where hard drive data was
recorded to detect what had been written over by looking
deep inside the surface.
Unless you've made enemies with somebody who owns an
electron microscope and a parallel array of
supercomputers, the write-over will surely suffice.
So the fix is to buy a data wipeout program like the
$29.95 Drive Scrubber by Iolo Technologies (www.iolo.com)
or by acquiring a freeware or shareware program. Because
peace of mind is the issue, Iolo, an established Windows
utility program maker, is probably the way to go.
But if you'd like to explore the shareware/freeware
option, check out the Tucows Web site (www.tucows.com)
where you can search out software using terms such as
"data wipe" and "drive clean." These tend to be fairly
complex affairs, like BCWipe from Jetco Inc., that use
text-based commands to do a full drive wipe.
More at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/techn...3379123.column?coll=chi-technologyreviews-hed
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/a5ljc
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
By James Coates
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Q. I am planning to sell my laptop (Toshiba Satellite
2800 series, about five years old) and want to know how I
go about wiping out my hard drive of any personal
information.
I've been told that just reloading the operating software
(Windows XP) will do this, but I want to know for sure.
- Alexis Alvarez-Suzuki @aol.com
A. Here's your answer in a nutshell A.A., yes and no.
By hauling out the original CDs for system recovery and
then following the directions to reformat the hard drive
and reinstall the operating system will cover a good
chunk of the hard drive. That will make it difficult for
a techno crook to eke out any information left by your
first go-around. I would do just that and sleep like a
baby.
But if you told me that a bunch of guys wearing Geek
Squad white shirts and narrow black ties were seen
dragging that laptop out of my garbage bin, I would wake
up from my baby sleep and have a cow.
The only way to be 100 percent sure that nobody with
computer talents can ferret out some stuff from a hard
drive is to use software that writes a 0 or a 1 to each
spot on the drive. Even then, Pentagon standards call for
repeating the write-over several times.
The problem is that somebody with an electron microscope
could scan the metal plate where hard drive data was
recorded to detect what had been written over by looking
deep inside the surface.
Unless you've made enemies with somebody who owns an
electron microscope and a parallel array of
supercomputers, the write-over will surely suffice.
So the fix is to buy a data wipeout program like the
$29.95 Drive Scrubber by Iolo Technologies (www.iolo.com)
or by acquiring a freeware or shareware program. Because
peace of mind is the issue, Iolo, an established Windows
utility program maker, is probably the way to go.
But if you'd like to explore the shareware/freeware
option, check out the Tucows Web site (www.tucows.com)
where you can search out software using terms such as
"data wipe" and "drive clean." These tend to be fairly
complex affairs, like BCWipe from Jetco Inc., that use
text-based commands to do a full drive wipe.
More at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/techn...3379123.column?coll=chi-technologyreviews-hed
Jai Maharaj
http://tinyurl.com/a5ljc
http://www.mantra.com/jai
Om Shanti
Hindu Holocaust Museum
http://www.mantra.com/holocaust
Hindu life, principles, spirituality and philosophy
http://www.hindu.org
http://www.hindunet.org
The truth about Islam and Muslims
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational
purposes of research and open discussion. The contents of this post may not
have been authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the
poster. The contents are protected by copyright law and the exemption for
fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely not be read,
considered or answered if it does not contain your full legal name, current
e-mail and postal addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views expressed by others are
not necessarily those of the poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted material the use of
which may or may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This material is being made available in efforts to advance the
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democratic, scientific, social, and cultural, etc., issues. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title
17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research, comment, discussion and educational purposes by
subscribing to USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more information
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
