Originally posted here by AciDriveHB

If people were smart though they would use a utility that would zero the drive, and then write junk data on the disk, then format it again. I have a utility that does that (along with 25 passes, etc). Data can't be recovered if there is other data written over that file on the drive.
Even that wont get rid of "all" the data. There are still ways to recover some of the data. Granted they involve ALOT more work. The best way to clear it is with a utility that 0's the drive then 1's the drives and then puts random data on the disk but because the writes dont cover the exact location that the previous data was stored (due to vibrations with the write heads and other variables), there is small amounts that get left on the top or bottoms of the currant data. Thats why if you have real (and I mean REAL BIG) security issues with your hard drive data the best thing to do is write the 0's, 1's and random data then use some sort of chemical to strip the hard drive disks, scratch the heck out of it, drill some holes, and then grind it into dust should do the trick but that would make the hard drive usless and is probably over kill. I find the computer forensics a neat topic and there is/was a forum on this topic here at AO (for those of you who are interested)


LC4 (l0pht crack) requires admin writes to get the passwords from the box, but there are ways around that... but that requires more know how that I wish I had...

an NTpassword changing boot disk should work providing it is a windows machine...