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Thread: Software to delete files from your Harddrive

  1. #1
    Senior Member DeadAddict's Avatar
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    Software to delete files from your Harddrive

    Hard drives

    As hard drives get larger capacities people are upgrading them and they are either giving their old drives away, saving them as a second drive or throwing them out into the trash and think that since they have formatted or reinstalled a Operating system on the drive the data that was on there is gone for good and has no chance of being recovered. In a perfect world this would be true but the truth is that anyone with some patience and the right software can recover the data that you thought was gone.

    Your hard drive is just like a CD once you have written data to it. The data will be there forever unless you physically destroy the CD by either snapping it into many pieces or shredding it with a machine that shreds CD’s (don’t know if a paper shredder will do the job) same goes for hard drives the only way to be 100% sure that the data that is on the drive is never going to be recovered is to damage the platters, some are made out of aluminium or glass. The glass ones shatter into a million pieces(One time thrill) and the aluminium ones you will have to bend it all out of shape these are great when you need to release some frustration or when you feel the need to be destructive. Muhahahaha

    There is software that is available for wiping your hard drive clean of all data, cookies, cache, files Etc so that if you are giving it to a friend another family member Etc the data will be harder to recover if they decide to attempt it.

    Free software
    These programs are for the windows Operating System


    PGP Freeware (MIT Version) works with Windows 95/98/NT/2000
    This software not only encrypts files and hard drives it also has a feature that will wipe a file and freespace on your drive
    Http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html

    PGP Personal Freeware
    www.pgp.com/products/freeware.html

    Mutilate file wiper/free space
    Http://home.att.net/~craigchr/mutilate.html

    Shred
    www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,273,00.asp

    Eraser
    www.tolvanen.com/eraser/

    Absolute shield internet eraser
    www.internet-track-eraser.com

    Software that costs money

    Cyberscrub
    cost $39.95
    Platform windows
    Erases folders, cookies entire harddrives uses gutmann pattern
    www.cyberscrub.com

    Datagone
    cost $90.00
    Platform windows
    Erases Hd’s and removable media will support multiple overwriting patterns
    www.powerquest.com

    Ontrack Data eraser
    http://www.ontrack.com/dataeraser/
    cost $30.00 - $500.00
    Platform windows
    Erases directories, partitions and boot records

    Software for linux

    Wipe
    Erases single files or entire hard drive
    Http://wipe.sourceforge.net



    Low level format

    This is a small list of hard drive manufactures if you don’t know who made your drive you could either open your case to look at the drive or you can download one of these programs that will tell you what drive you have and other useful information about your computer

    Belarc advisor
    http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html this one is free

    or

    Sandra
    http://www.3bsoftware.com/downloads/ they have two versions Standard and professional

    Hard drive manufactures

    IBM(Hitachi)
    http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

    Seagate
    http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

    Maxtor
    http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

    Fujitsu
    http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1

    Samsung
    http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/index.htm

    Western Digital
    http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

  2. #2
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    Good Post. Yeah some companies are really good at retrieving data. Dig these guys: http://www.datarr.com/tfds.html
    And of course this one remains one of my favorites:
    http://www.vogon-international.us/di...ery-case-1.htm

    So if you want to REALLY destroy data, then you damn near have to melt your drives in an iron smelting furnace!
    You shall no longer take things at second or third hand,
    nor look through the eyes of the dead...You shall listen to all
    sides and filter them for your self.
    -Walt Whitman-

  3. #3

  4. #4
    Very nice write-up mate. Appreciate ya posting it. Mind if I distribute it to some other forums?

  5. #5
    Senior Member DeadAddict's Avatar
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    Sure I don't see why not I took the time to write it to help other members and people who visit this site gain a little knowledge

  6. #6
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    Addict, what exactly is a low level format and who and why is it done? I assume that a high level format is when you use the OS disk to format the drive.

    Later
    A+ Certified

  7. #7
    Senior Member DeadAddict's Avatar
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    This is from what I rember from memory


    Low level format

    This is done at the factory It is a method that creates sectors and tracks on the hard drive and also states where the data will be written/stored on the Hard drive This will wipe the entire harddrive deleting partitions,MBR, files Etc

    High level format
    This will initalize small portions of the harddrive such as the MBR (master boot record) file system structures and file tables. when you reinstall your Operating system on the drive it does a HLF (high level format)

    Floppy disks go through the same process low level format and then a high level format

  8. #8
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    Anyhow this had been a very informative read for me.
    Even though i don't know all that much about computers, i was still willing to read up on something knew to add to my computer learning knowledge..
    Anyhow thankyou very much for this Val.

    Cya

    Stacy......!

  9. #9
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    'System shield' will do it.

  10. #10
    Thanks 4 the copyrights to distribute it 2 other forums,will give u credits of course.

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