So, what do you guys use to remove history from your computer. I am getting a new computer, and I have files on this I want to completely get rid of. I deleted them with recycle bin, but I know that still leaves traces. What kind of software should I use to get rid of deleted stuff for good?
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Anonymous2007-01-20 15:16
right click on your harddrive > format > Done!!!
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Anonymous2007-01-20 15:27
It's still possible to retrieve up to OVER 9000% of data from formatted HDD and you know it!
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Anonymous2007-01-20 15:37
Come on, I'm not that stupid. I have CCleaner, but I want to know if it's full of aids.
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Anonymous2007-01-20 17:53
It isn't. Get Eraser and give it a day or two to do a 35-pass run on the whole thing.
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Anonymous2007-01-20 18:14
Format, write with 1s.
Format again, write with 1s.
If you're feeling super paranoid, do it a couple more times.
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Anonymous2007-01-20 18:41
Thank you number 5. To others- I'm not deleting my whole hard drive. I just want to make sure what I already deleted never comes back.
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Anonymous2007-01-21 6:01
Melt it
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Anonymous2007-01-21 17:52
Thermite.
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Anonymous2007-01-21 20:14
"To others- I'm not deleting my whole hard drive. I just want to make sure what I already deleted never comes back."
I'm afraid to clean a drive you must clean it completely. Few people would spend the time or money to recover your data unless it was the government prosecuting you as a pedo or tax cheat.
Okay, I'm just paranoid, shy person whoes getting a new computer. I srsly doubt the government is after me. I've been running CCleaner, Tracks Eraser, Spybot, and DiskCleanup a ton lately anyway since I've used nearly 85% of my hd space.
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Anonymous2007-01-22 2:12
Where is the old harddrive going? Unless it will be used pull the harddrive and add it to your new box for backups.
With the old box just reboot with your install disk, delete your C: drive, create a partition and format, then reinstall your OS.
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Fox642007-01-22 8:06
A good program to sanitize ur drive is Eraser. It fills ur drive with zerozors, and can even write it over with random 1s so everything is garaunteed to be unusable. Not to mention its free! http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
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Anonymous2007-01-22 18:18
>>13
It's probably going to my step-dad as a second computer. He has a decent one and a crappy one, and the crappy one has crapped out. He's pretty computer literate, and quite paranoid. I think everything is good now though. Thanks.
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Anonymous2007-01-22 21:16
"He's pretty computer literate, and quite paranoid. I think everything is good now though."
Make sure you defrag it too if you haven't already done a format.
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Anonymous2007-01-29 0:14
DBAN FTW, just boot it and let it go.
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Anonymous2007-01-29 0:39
>>13
You continue to demonstrate your dumbfuckery with every post. Eraser has five default modes: two simple single-pass ones, two levels of compliance with a relevant DoD specification, and the Gutmann thing, which is 35 passes and actually not as good as it sounds, since a lot of the patterns (which are not random) are designed for specific types of drive and are all included only in the case that the user doesn't know what kind of hardware he's using.
By the way, how do you write with 'random 1s'? 1111111?
>>16
See, that's DANGEROUS. Just use Eraser; you can actually control it and have the benefit of all your device drivers.
All anyone needs to know about cleaning a hard drive is
1. Foirmatting doesn't actually clean it - it just gets rid of the index, not the files.
2. Any simple program which starts at the beginning of the disk and writes zeros or ones till it gets to the end of the disk will do the job. You need to run it ONCE, not 35 bajillion times.
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Anonymous2007-01-29 14:17
>>5
Paranoid much? Two wipes is enough for most purposes, five if you want to be dead certain. Even after the most basic secure wipe someone is going to need several months with an electron microscope to get back your Captain Picards.
>>20
Enjoy your ignorance and wasted time. Maybe you want to read WHY they say 35 passes, instead of assuming it's for everyone. But whatever, it's only wasting your time, not mine.
35 passes is stupid. That might have been advisable when hard drive densities were low, but now they are so high with the 500 GB, that all you have to do is overwrite the whole thing with a bunch of 0's and even the FBI's precious electron microscopes won't be able to do anything.
>>25
Gutmann's 35-pass method, as previously stated, was designed to handle the hard drive even if the user had no idea what type it was. He believes the government will always have magic ways to get your data back, though.
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Jotun2007-02-13 1:57
Will it blend?
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Anonymous2007-02-14 23:13
>>27
I don't know why people continue to perpetuate this paranoia, all it does is waste so much precious time wiping and harddrives (when people destroy them). If you have data, like say a nuclear bomb schematic, then yes use thermite. If your just trying to delete your stupid child porn collection, some zeros and some pseudorandom data over the whole drive will defeat any law enforcement agency. They don't have the time, money or manpower to try and recover your data. It can take well over a year of using an MFM(The microscopes they would use) 24/7 to make a duplicate image of the drive. Then they would have to analyze terabytes of data generated, and even this is subject to high readback error. So stop wasting your time with Gutmann's nonsense. Oh and while this theoretical 'recovery' of overwritten data may be possible with lower density drives which have large areas between tracks, high density ones, like say a 500GB one are next to impossible with even the most exotic recovery technologies today, maybe in 20 years but not today.