Wiping hard drive clean
 

Hi:
Can anyone suggest any aplications (freeware, shareare,etc.)
that will actually wipe your hard drive clean
not just erase the pointers
so that any persoanl data that may have been on the Hard Disk
is not retrievable by anyone
no matter how good of a hacker they may be ?


Will doing a reformat/re-install of Windows (98)
accomplish this ? If so, how would one do it ?
From an Emergency BackUP CD ? A system floppy ?

Thank you
DaleB

On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 04:56:02 -0700, "DaleB" wrote:

Hi:
Can anyone suggest any aplications (freeware, shareare,etc.)
that will actually wipe your hard drive clean
not just erase the pointers
so that any persoanl data that may have been on the Hard Disk
is not retrievable by anyone
no matter how good of a hacker they may be ?

This option is an option of many HDD manufacturers' utilities (like Data Lifeguard for Western
Digital, etc).

See also: "Erase Sensitive Files and Data from your PC"
http://www.help2go.com/article161.html

Will doing a reformat/re-install of Windows (98)
accomplish this ?

No. Most of the data can be retrieved even after repartitioning and reformatting the HDD.

If so, how would one do it ?
From an Emergency BackUP CD ?

No.

A system floppy ?

If to keep the erasing DOS-program on this diskette (like the programs of the HDD manufacturers).

--
Mikhail Zhilin
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======

"DaleB" wrote:

Hi:
Can anyone suggest any aplications (freeware, shareare,etc.)
that will actually wipe your hard drive clean
not just erase the pointers
so that any persoanl data that may have been on the Hard Disk
is not retrievable by anyone
no matter how good of a hacker they may be ?


Will doing a reformat/re-install of Windows (98)
accomplish this ? If so, how would one do it ?
From an Emergency BackUP CD ? A system floppy ?

Thank you
DaleB

Try CopyWipe from www.bootitng.com to wipe the drive.

However that still will not prevent a determined person with the
necessary equipment and resources from recovering the data. Data can
still be reconstructed even from drives that have been overwritten
multiple times.

Government security experts say that the only way to *guarantee* that
the hard drive data content cannot be recovered is to physically
destroy the drive by crushing and shredding it.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

Thank you for the info !

"Mikhail Zhilin" wrote:

On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 04:56:02 -0700, "DaleB" wrote:

Hi:
Can anyone suggest any aplications (freeware, shareare,etc.)
that will actually wipe your hard drive clean
not just erase the pointers
so that any persoanl data that may have been on the Hard Disk
is not retrievable by anyone
no matter how good of a hacker they may be ?

This option is an option of many HDD manufacturers' utilities (like Data Lifeguard for Western
Digital, etc).

See also: "Erase Sensitive Files and Data from your PC"
http://www.help2go.com/article161.html

Will doing a reformat/re-install of Windows (98)
accomplish this ?

No. Most of the data can be retrieved even after repartitioning and reformatting the HDD.

If so, how would one do it ?
From an Emergency BackUP CD ?

No.

A system floppy ?

If to keep the erasing DOS-program on this diskette (like the programs of the HDD manufacturers).

--
Mikhail Zhilin
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
http://www.aha.ru/~mwz
Sorry, no technical support by e-mail.
Please reply to the newsgroups only.
======

Thank you for the advice !

"Ron Martell" wrote:

"DaleB" wrote:

Hi:
Can anyone suggest any aplications (freeware, shareare,etc.)
that will actually wipe your hard drive clean
not just erase the pointers
so that any persoanl data that may have been on the Hard Disk
is not retrievable by anyone
no matter how good of a hacker they may be ?


Will doing a reformat/re-install of Windows (98)
accomplish this ? If so, how would one do it ?
From an Emergency BackUP CD ? A system floppy ?

Thank you
DaleB

Try CopyWipe from www.bootitng.com to wipe the drive.

However that still will not prevent a determined person with the
necessary equipment and resources from recovering the data. Data can
still be reconstructed even from drives that have been overwritten
multiple times.

Government security experts say that the only way to *guarantee* that
the hard drive data content cannot be recovered is to physically
destroy the drive by crushing and shredding it.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm