Delete anything forever?

[Kermit911]

Does anyone know of a program that will delete a file or files for good? I know if somthing gets deleted, it's still there, but there is a tag that is put infront of the data that tells the system you can write over this if you have to. I'm looking for a program that will permanently delete anything. Does somthing like that excist?

Thanx all

[(jj)]

You might want to check out Eraser, http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ It's an open source program that removes the files and then overwrites several times.

[IanS]

It does Dept of Defence (Defense) level deletion - 3 or 7 times or even upto 35 times. The method is to write patterns of binary to the disk so often that what is left is untraceable.

[fluKe]

Of course the data can still be retrieved using advanced methods of reading the magnitism on the disc. Even if it has been overwritten many times.

But unless you are doing things government agencies would want to know about I wouldn't worry!

[IanS]

Of course the data can still be retrieved using advanced methods of reading the magnitism on the disc. Even if it has been overwritten many times.

But unless you are doing things government agencies would want to know about I wouldn't worry!
I understand the DoD level of clearing data prevents any technique - that's the whole point of it, to prevent government secrets getting out.

[Kermit911]

Stupid DOD, always trying to steel other people secrets. :D That's intresting though. You can still recover data even though it has been writen over again? Any idea how?

[patrickpawlowsk]

Stupid DOD, always trying to steel other people secrets. :D That's intresting though. You can still recover data even though it has been writen over again? Any idea how?
Think of it like this. Do you remeber cassette tapes? You used to be able to erase a cassette which basically meant recording silence over the music and then listen to it with headphones with the volume turned up all the way and still hear the music on it. That's because there was still some residual magnetisim in the magnetic particles on the tape. If you recorded something else on the tape, sometimes you could still hear the old recording in the blank space between tracks when it was turned up real loud. I suspect with the right equipment you could even block out the new recording and just hear the lower level old recording.

[fluKe]

Exactly, even the DoD level clearing leaves behind residual magnetism which can be used to recover data.

The DoD level clearing is used as it takes a lot of time, effort and money, which only the DoD is likely to have, in order to recover data this way.

If a hard disk has contained any sensitive files it is common practice to destroy the deisk when it is past it's usefulness rather than wipe it and re-use it elsewhere.

[Autoload]

Wanna have some geek fun? Go to a computer show and purchase some $10 used hard drives.... then use any one of the free data recovery software you can get off the Internet. Plug those drives in and get yourself access to previous owners bank information, user names, passwords, cache files, cookies, programs etc...

I recently hit the jackpot of music on a $4 hard drive at a garage sale. Nearly 2,000 songs. Never throw out or sell a hard drive if you put information on it that you wouldn't want the whole world to know about. Fluke is on the money... when you're done with a hard drive, destroy it.

[patrickpawlowsk]

when you're done with a hard drive, destroy it.
Generally, it's the other way around for me. I'm not done with a hard drive until it's destroyed. :D

[Kermit911]

LOL Thanx guys, your all a big help

:D

[csao]

http://lists.gpick.com/pages/File_Deletion_Tools.htm Uses DOD Deltion standard.