PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive...

JustaWizard · 10-22-2009, 01:37 PM

Hey Warriors - sorry this is not about making money, except in the sense that I'm selling a laptop and I need to effectively and permanently erase all files, data, etc. as there is a ton of stuff on there that I wouldn't want to fall "into the wrong hands" - it's not dirty stuff, just personal stuff, banking and other financial info, docs with my passwords, social security, etc.

I'm nervous about a reformat not *really* doing the trick...

Help! How do I REALLY make the hard drive as if it's never had data on it?

Thanks!
David

Scott Ames · 10-22-2009, 01:38 PM

Eraser I'm told is good. Open Source too:

Eraser

Razer Rage · 10-22-2009, 01:40 PM

The only way to REALLY remove data from your hard drive is to destroy your hard drive completely.

I know there are programs, however, that can do the job pretty well (they delete the file, then overwrite it, and then delete that, and they keep doing this millions of times in a short amount of time).

I wouldn't know of any though. Perhaps you can look in Google for it.

Adam Carn · 10-22-2009, 01:42 PM

Doing a Google search I came across this article which may help:

How to Permanently Delete Files - Using Windows Secret Built-In Tool

Thanks,
Adam

travlinguy · 10-22-2009, 01:46 PM

I'm not an expert but once heard from one that reformatting a hard drive clears it. I've also heard that deleting your stuff then running the defrag function will get rid of the deleted data too. Again, I don't know if either is accurate. Maybe someone who does will correct me if it isn't.

netalab · 10-22-2009, 01:51 PM

Why not format your harddrive!?

rodl13 · 10-22-2009, 02:00 PM

Simply formatting a drive is not sufficient to delete data. Programs like GetDataBack, can recover data from formatted hard drivers.

The best I have seen to completely erase a drive is Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing free program.

Or to be the safest, hard drives are quite cheap now adays, remove the old - destroy it, (you can have fun smashing it) and sell your laptop with a brand new hard drive.

Rich Struck · 10-22-2009, 02:00 PM

Formatting won't get rid of your data, it merely conceals it. Someone who is clever enough and patient enough can recover it. If I had a hard drive full of data I wanted destroyed I would take it apart and take a grinder to it.

JohnHuizinga · 10-22-2009, 02:03 PM

Delete everything you want gone.
Use a macro in Microsoft Word (or any other word processor) to create a document that consists of 10,000,000 @ signs.
Save it as a text file.
Copy and paste it.
Copy and paste the two files you now have.
Copy and paste the 4 files you now have.
Continue until your hard drive is full.
Everything you deleted has now been overwritten.

Profit-smart · 10-22-2009, 02:14 PM

Try downloading and burning a demo of something called "Killdisk".

OR buy it, and you can do unlimited runs.

Josh Anderson · 10-22-2009, 02:16 PM

I use a large 2x2 inch neodymium magnet with hundreds of pounds of pull to kill it and ruin the data...

Then I use a sledge hammer :-)

Of course you would not be able to sell it at that point :-0

But as was mentioned a new hard drive is cheap to buy and replace.

Martin Luxton · 10-22-2009, 02:17 PM

According to the CIA, there's only one sure way - a bullet.

Martin

CliveG · 10-22-2009, 02:19 PM

It's very very difficult to get rid of all data from a hard drive so that it cannot be recovered. There is a US DOD standard on this subject and it's very demanding. The best free solution that I have come across is Darik's Boot and Nuke, but if it were me I would replace the hard drive.

Pattaya-Addict · 10-22-2009, 02:48 PM

i volunteer for a charity one day a week, the charity accepts donations of old PC's from businesses,banks etc. the pc's are then refurbished and sent to africa.

before they are sent to africa the hard drives are completely wiped using DBAN

Use dban to wipe a hard drive and there is NO POSSIBLE WAY any data can be recovered from the HD

Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing

hope this helps

rawservices · 10-22-2009, 03:35 PM

you also have to remember that not everyone has the knowledge nor desire to recover your information.

there are good people in the world ;-)

if you sell if over the internet, obviously wipe to full extent and even consider replacing the hard drive.

but all in all, he best way is eraser. it'll erase enough that it would cost a lot of money in software and equipment to get it back.

hope this helps,

-Ryan

Asher · 10-22-2009, 03:41 PM

Fire always works.

Or liquid hydrogen.

goliathseo · 10-22-2009, 03:46 PM

All of these are good but your best bet would be a combination of al these progs, using a bullet and magnet and grinder. Swap out the HD before you do this and you are good to go...

TheGodfather · 10-22-2009, 03:51 PM

As a computing expert I must say that the only way that you can erase data that could never be recovered again, but without destroying your hard drive is with a program called active kill disk.

This program allows you to make 35 passes of random data or your drive which can take several hours or days even, depending on the size of your hard drive, but it will ensure that the magnet layer which you had with your data to be suppressed deep enough for anyone to be able to retrieve it.

If you cannot find a software, you will find it within a pack that is called Hiren's boot CD. If you are unable to buy this software, the boot CD, you can find it on several torrent sites, and just burn it on any CD. The whole thing has about 80 MB in size.

Once he starts active kill disk you will find within it the option that will say "high security, very slow,35 number of passes". Use that option and leave it to do its work.

This will ensure that no one will ever find any data on your hard drive, simply because this algorithm is even stronger than what the US Department of Defense uses to wipe their hard drives.

I hope this helps,
TheGodfather

easybiztools · 10-22-2009, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustaWizard

Hey Warriors - sorry this is not about making money, except in the sense that I'm selling a laptop and I need to effectively and permanently erase all files, data, etc. as there is a ton of stuff on there that I wouldn't want to fall "into the wrong hands" - it's not dirty stuff, just personal stuff, banking and other financial info, docs with my passwords, social security, etc.

I'm nervous about a reformat not *really* doing the trick...

Help! How do I REALLY make the hard drive as if it's never had data on it?

Thanks!
David

Hi David,

As mentioned by many others in this thread, the surest bet is to:
1. buy a new hard drive for the laptop you want to sell

2. buy an external drive casing for your old disk (now you can use
this as an external drive with all your data intact)

3. And tell the buyer that he's getting a brand new hard-disk as a 'bonus' :-)

cheers,
Adrian

mreynolds · 10-22-2009, 10:45 PM

Yeah, I thought that even when you delete it all, the information is still in there somewhere.

Mike Anthony · 10-22-2009, 10:52 PM

Another vote for kill disk or replace the drive.

David_Preston · 10-22-2009, 11:45 PM

The cops or divorce attorneys WILL find the searches
for "easy ways to dispose of spouse" unless you use a
hammer on the hard drive.

LOL

David

BeauJustin · 10-23-2009, 01:18 AM

Reformatting does NOT erase the data on the drive. Anyone can make the drive a slave to another drive and then search the contents of the drive via data recovery software.

You also DO NOT have to replace your drive. There is only one way to completely clean a drive and that is do a process called zeroing out. Zeroing out is a low level format of the drive. Essentially it replaces all the binary 1's on the drive with zeros effectively destroying every last bit of recoverable data permanently. Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format. will do the job amiably.

Depending on the size of the drive it could take a few hours.

anup.mahajan · 10-23-2009, 01:51 AM

1) Delete everything from your hard disk
2) Format all the drives
3) Use Windows Installer and delete all the partitions
4) Reinstall Windows and create new partitions again (do not create same sized or same number of partitions)
5) Connect to internet and fill your hard disk by huge files .. Make sure your hard disk is completely full...

Repeat steps 1 & 2... I got this from one of my friends who works in a security firm..

He says it works

Cheers,

AverageGuy · 10-23-2009, 02:07 AM

I think there is a standard for this in U.S. military. If I'm not wrong, I remeber the entire HD should write and delete/reformat for 11 times (not sure 11).

There are some software that can do this for you.

david

mrnightowl · 10-23-2009, 02:16 AM

Yeah when I was in the military we used data eraser. It scattered the data encrypted then deleted. So even the best hackers would have a very hard time recovering encrypted scattered data. But thats no fun

Thermite is the key!!! Matter of fact might as well do a video of you using thermite on your entire laptop, put it on youtube with affiliate site links and the works. Maybe you could make more money by doing that, than you could by selling it.

FUN!!!

Eric.

Sydp · 10-23-2009, 03:58 AM

Physically destroying the drive is the only way to guarantee it's safe - experts say to break it, then burn it. But Radsoft's E3 shreds disks as well as can be done digitally. Using a Guttmann shred, tt destroys the data on your disk as well as can be done without physically destroying the disk.

Brad Mc Bard · 10-23-2009, 04:50 AM

I used to work in the defense industry, and physically destroying was the only acceptable way.

HOWEVER - for lower classification stuff we used Eraser, by Heidi: Eraser .

It's free and very easy to use - you might want to have it handy on your new computer as well..

If you want to erase the entire disk, easiest way is to do this:

Open eraser and click Ctrl+E for the preferences menu
Select Unused Disk Space and choose one of the high-pass methods. Guttman would be bulletproof, but passing through your entire disk 35 times would take a lifetime and might ruin it. Personally I'd use US DOD 5220 - 7pass. Leave all checkboxes on - to erase everything possible.
In internet explorer erase with shift+delete everything you don't want to leave behind. This step will delete the files - but they will still be recoverable!
In Eraser set a task for deleting "Unused space on drive" and set it on "local hard drives"
Make sure the laptop is plugged in, so it won't turn off mid-way.
Just in case - do this without having any external drives, usb cards etc. plugged in - you don't want them erased!

I'm pretty paranoid - but I trust the DOD 7pass method - unless selling to a REALLY crazy hacker who's out to get you, lol (then I'd do 35, or not sell at all)

I hope this helped.
Cheers,
Brad

Steve Powers · 10-23-2009, 05:25 AM

wow,it seems so difficult after seeing guys upstairs said.Why not directly forcibly format your hard drive.Then I think it's OK.No necessity to make it that complicated.

Magic Mel · 10-23-2009, 06:09 AM

I'd take a hammer to it! Your files are sensitive and not worth the risk.

10-22-2009, 01:37 PM	#1
JustaWizard Offline Marketing Expert War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Vancouver, WA USA Posts: 401 Thanks: 202 Thanked 44 Times in 22 Posts Social Networking	PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Hey Warriors - sorry this is not about making money, except in the sense that I'm selling a laptop and I need to effectively and permanently erase all files, data, etc. as there is a ton of stuff on there that I wouldn't want to fall "into the wrong hands" - it's not dirty stuff, just personal stuff, banking and other financial info, docs with my passwords, social security, etc. I'm nervous about a reformat not really doing the trick... Help! How do I REALLY make the hard drive as if it's never had data on it? Thanks! David
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10-22-2009, 01:38 PM	#2
Scott Ames I'm getting fat War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: West of Rockies Posts: 4,808 Thanks: 194 Thanked 304 Times in 168 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Eraser I'm told is good. Open Source too: Eraser
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10-22-2009, 01:40 PM	#3
Razer Rage Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 612 Thanks: 113 Thanked 64 Times in 43 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... The only way to REALLY remove data from your hard drive is to destroy your hard drive completely. I know there are programs, however, that can do the job pretty well (they delete the file, then overwrite it, and then delete that, and they keep doing this millions of times in a short amount of time). I wouldn't know of any though. Perhaps you can look in Google for it.
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10-22-2009, 01:42 PM	#4
Adam Carn ListSwapper.com War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, United Kingdom Posts: 708 Thanks: 262 Thanked 146 Times in 41 Posts Social Networking	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Doing a Google search I came across this article which may help: How to Permanently Delete Files - Using Windows Secret Built-In Tool Thanks, Adam
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10-22-2009, 01:46 PM	#5
travlinguy HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: , , USA. Posts: 444 Thanks: 35 Thanked 92 Times in 81 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... I'm not an expert but once heard from one that reformatting a hard drive clears it. I've also heard that deleting your stuff then running the defrag function will get rid of the deleted data too. Again, I don't know if either is accurate. Maybe someone who does will correct me if it isn't.
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10-22-2009, 01:51 PM	#6
netalab Netalab, Inc. Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Florida, USA Posts: 54 Thanks: 1 Thanked 6 Times in 6 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Why not format your harddrive!?
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10-22-2009, 02:00 PM	#7
rodl13 Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Vancouver, Canada. Posts: 54 Thanks: 1 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Social Networking Contact Info	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Simply formatting a drive is not sufficient to delete data. Programs like GetDataBack, can recover data from formatted hard drivers. The best I have seen to completely erase a drive is Darik's Boot And Nuke \| Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing free program. Or to be the safest, hard drives are quite cheap now adays, remove the old - destroy it, (you can have fun smashing it) and sell your laptop with a brand new hard drive.
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10-22-2009, 02:00 PM	#8
Rich Struck HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Scotland, SD Posts: 179 Thanks: 2 Thanked 21 Times in 19 Posts Social Networking	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Formatting won't get rid of your data, it merely conceals it. Someone who is clever enough and patient enough can recover it. If I had a hard drive full of data I wanted destroyed I would take it apart and take a grinder to it.
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10-22-2009, 02:03 PM	#9
JohnHuizinga IM White Belt Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: , Ontario, Canada. Posts: 107 Thanks: 48 Thanked 16 Times in 12 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Delete everything you want gone. Use a macro in Microsoft Word (or any other word processor) to create a document that consists of 10,000,000 @ signs. Save it as a text file. Copy and paste it. Copy and paste the two files you now have. Copy and paste the 4 files you now have. Continue until your hard drive is full. Everything you deleted has now been overwritten.
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10-22-2009, 02:14 PM	#10
Profit-smart Aut Inviniam Aut Faciam Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 64 Thanks: 1 Thanked 14 Times in 10 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Try downloading and burning a demo of something called "Killdisk". OR buy it, and you can do unlimited runs.
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10-22-2009, 02:16 PM	#11
Josh Anderson It's in my Signature :-) War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: ID, USA. Posts: 8,226 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 124 Thanked 610 Times in 271 Posts Social Networking	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... I use a large 2x2 inch neodymium magnet with hundreds of pounds of pull to kill it and ruin the data... Then I use a sledge hammer :-) Of course you would not be able to sell it at that point :-0 But as was mentioned a new hard drive is cheap to buy and replace.
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10-22-2009, 02:17 PM	#12
Martin Luxton Christmas Rocker Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: North Pole Posts: 1,891 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 370 Thanked 375 Times in 192 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... According to the CIA, there's only one sure way - a bullet. Martin
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10-22-2009, 02:19 PM	#13
CliveG HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Cornwall, United Kingdom Posts: 298 Thanks: 5 Thanked 29 Times in 28 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... It's very very difficult to get rid of all data from a hard drive so that it cannot be recovered. There is a US DOD standard on this subject and it's very demanding. The best free solution that I have come across is Darik's Boot and Nuke, but if it were me I would replace the hard drive.
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10-22-2009, 02:48 PM	#14
Pattaya-Addict HyperActive Warrior Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Dublin.. Ireland Posts: 260 Thanks: 24 Thanked 19 Times in 14 Posts Contact Info	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... i volunteer for a charity one day a week, the charity accepts donations of old PC's from businesses,banks etc. the pc's are then refurbished and sent to africa. before they are sent to africa the hard drives are completely wiped using DBAN Use dban to wipe a hard drive and there is NO POSSIBLE WAY any data can be recovered from the HD Darik's Boot And Nuke \| Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing hope this helps
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10-22-2009, 03:35 PM	#15
rawservices Designer Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: San Diego Posts: 101 Thanks: 28 Thanked 7 Times in 5 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... you also have to remember that not everyone has the knowledge nor desire to recover your information. there are good people in the world ;-) if you sell if over the internet, obviously wipe to full extent and even consider replacing the hard drive. but all in all, he best way is eraser. it'll erase enough that it would cost a lot of money in software and equipment to get it back. hope this helps, -Ryan
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10-22-2009, 03:41 PM	#16
Asher Wanted by Success War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Singapore. Posts: 1,457 Blog Entries: 59 Thanks: 271 Thanked 159 Times in 115 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Fire always works. Or liquid hydrogen.
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10-22-2009, 03:46 PM	#17
goliathseo Jason Baker Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Fairfax CA Posts: 120 Thanks: 12 Thanked 9 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... All of these are good but your best bet would be a combination of al these progs, using a bullet and magnet and grinder. Swap out the HD before you do this and you are good to go...
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10-22-2009, 03:51 PM	#18
TheGodfather Toni Kostelac War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Rijeka, Croatia Posts: 296 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 31 Thanked 18 Times in 11 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... As a computing expert I must say that the only way that you can erase data that could never be recovered again, but without destroying your hard drive is with a program called active kill disk. This program allows you to make 35 passes of random data or your drive which can take several hours or days even, depending on the size of your hard drive, but it will ensure that the magnet layer which you had with your data to be suppressed deep enough for anyone to be able to retrieve it. If you cannot find a software, you will find it within a pack that is called Hiren's boot CD. If you are unable to buy this software, the boot CD, you can find it on several torrent sites, and just burn it on any CD. The whole thing has about 80 MB in size. Once he starts active kill disk you will find within it the option that will say "high security, very slow,35 number of passes". Use that option and leave it to do its work. This will ensure that no one will ever find any data on your hard drive, simply because this algorithm is even stronger than what the US Department of Defense uses to wipe their hard drives. I hope this helps, TheGodfather
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10-22-2009, 10:45 PM	#20
mreynolds Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 40 Thanks: 0 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Yeah, I thought that even when you delete it all, the information is still in there somewhere.

10-22-2009, 10:52 PM	#21
Mike Anthony Banned War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 441 Thanks: 36 Thanked 51 Times in 41 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Another vote for kill disk or replace the drive.

10-22-2009, 11:45 PM	#22
David_Preston Warrior Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Coastal SC Posts: 9 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post Social Networking	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... The cops or divorce attorneys WILL find the searches for "easy ways to dispose of spouse" unless you use a hammer on the hard drive. LOL David
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10-23-2009, 01:18 AM	#23
BeauJustin Active Warrior Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 67 Thanks: 16 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Reformatting does NOT erase the data on the drive. Anyone can make the drive a slave to another drive and then search the contents of the drive via data recovery software. You also DO NOT have to replace your drive. There is only one way to completely clean a drive and that is do a process called zeroing out. Zeroing out is a low level format of the drive. Essentially it replaces all the binary 1's on the drive with zeros effectively destroying every last bit of recoverable data permanently. Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format. will do the job amiably. Depending on the size of the drive it could take a few hours.
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10-23-2009, 01:51 AM	#24
anup.mahajan Firm Believer In Karma Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Mumbai, India. Posts: 449 Thanks: 13 Thanked 18 Times in 11 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... 1) Delete everything from your hard disk 2) Format all the drives 3) Use Windows Installer and delete all the partitions 4) Reinstall Windows and create new partitions again (do not create same sized or same number of partitions) 5) Connect to internet and fill your hard disk by huge files .. Make sure your hard disk is completely full... Repeat steps 1 & 2... I got this from one of my friends who works in a security firm.. He says it works Cheers,

10-23-2009, 02:07 AM	#25
AverageGuy Not Jr. Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: LA, CA, USA. Posts: 1,850 Thanks: 9 Thanked 25 Times in 23 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... I think there is a standard for this in U.S. military. If I'm not wrong, I remeber the entire HD should write and delete/reformat for 11 times (not sure 11). There are some software that can do this for you. david
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10-23-2009, 02:16 AM	#26
mrnightowl Active Warrior Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Acapulco, Mexico Posts: 51 Thanks: 3 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Yeah when I was in the military we used data eraser. It scattered the data encrypted then deleted. So even the best hackers would have a very hard time recovering encrypted scattered data. But thats no fun Thermite is the key!!! Matter of fact might as well do a video of you using thermite on your entire laptop, put it on youtube with affiliate site links and the works. Maybe you could make more money by doing that, than you could by selling it. FUN!!! Eric.
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10-23-2009, 03:58 AM	#27
Sydp Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 22 Thanks: 6 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... Physically destroying the drive is the only way to guarantee it's safe - experts say to break it, then burn it. But Radsoft's E3 shreds disks as well as can be done digitally. Using a Guttmann shred, tt destroys the data on your disk as well as can be done without physically destroying the disk.

10-23-2009, 04:50 AM	#28
Brad Mc Bard Riding the Tide War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 103 Thanks: 15 Thanked 4 Times in 4 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... I used to work in the defense industry, and physically destroying was the only acceptable way. HOWEVER - for lower classification stuff we used Eraser, by Heidi: Eraser . It's free and very easy to use - you might want to have it handy on your new computer as well.. If you want to erase the entire disk, easiest way is to do this: Open eraser and click Ctrl+E for the preferences menu Select Unused Disk Space and choose one of the high-pass methods. Guttman would be bulletproof, but passing through your entire disk 35 times would take a lifetime and might ruin it. Personally I'd use US DOD 5220 - 7pass. Leave all checkboxes on - to erase everything possible. In internet explorer erase with shift+delete everything you don't want to leave behind. This step will delete the files - but they will still be recoverable! In Eraser set a task for deleting "Unused space on drive" and set it on "local hard drives" Make sure the laptop is plugged in, so it won't turn off mid-way. Just in case - do this without having any external drives, usb cards etc. plugged in - you don't want them erased! I'm pretty paranoid - but I trust the DOD 7pass method - unless selling to a REALLY crazy hacker who's out to get you, lol (then I'd do 35, or not sell at all) I hope this helped. Cheers, Brad
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10-23-2009, 05:25 AM	#29
Steve Powers Active Warrior Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 57 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... wow,it seems so difficult after seeing guys upstairs said.Why not directly forcibly format your hard drive.Then I think it's OK.No necessity to make it that complicated.
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10-23-2009, 06:09 AM	#30
Magic Mel Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: , , . Posts: 3,472 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 13 Thanked 43 Times in 39 Posts	Re: PLEASE HELP: How to Delete Data Forever From a Hard Drive... I'd take a hammer to it! Your files are sensitive and not worth the risk.
	Just Pure Magic! http://magicmel.wordpress.com/ " You can either give a man a fish and feed him for a day OR teach him how to catch a fish and it will feed him for a lifetime"