jim Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I'm now thinking of getting rid of my old PC. Any suggestions as to what is the safest (i.e. most secure) way of getting rid of all of my files from the hard drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcash5 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hammer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin W Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hammer! but true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin W Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I'm now thinking of getting rid of my old PC. Any suggestions as to what is the safest (i.e. most secure) way of getting rid of all of my files from the hard drive? a less aggressive route might be to SHIFT delete all in 'My Documents' - assuming thats where you ket all your sensitive stuff, (permanently dleting this) then doing a disc optimisation, which pulls all the bits of those files that are supposed to still exist and puts them in contiguous sectors. Very little likelihood of anyone finding anything useful then. Assuming you also wipe your document history and Internet browsing history, you might then choose to system restore. And you could then flog it !!! (I'd risk it after that anyway) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 By disc optimisation, do you mean de-fragmentation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin W Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 By disc optimisation, do you mean de-fragmentation? yes - same thing or you can get special utilities which replace every byte of every file you specifiy with e.g. a space character. But thats a route i'd only go down for high security applications. (even then I might use a hammer in those situations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 +1 for hammer. You could use MoD-style 7-pass over writing programs, or stupidly powerful electromagnets, or a small thermonuclear device, but realistically if you physically smash the platters then it's going to cost someone a hell of a lot of money to be able to get anything back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin W Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 By disc optimisation, do you mean de-fragmentation? yes - same thing or you can get special utilities which replace every byte of every file you specifiy with e.g. a space character. But thats a route i'd only go down for high security applications. (even then I might use a hammer in those situations found this - or similar !!! havn't tried it so can't recommend this one http://www.tucows.com/preview/418561#MoreInfo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Are you planning to sell the PC or are you just binning it? If you dont want to keep it, then a hammer and some elbow grease will make it unreadable again. I went to the extreme of putting some nails through one of the sensative ones I destroyed, aint no bugger getting that back. Also as Marting says, you can get software (must be some free stuff somewhere) that will overwrite your files with random characters which stops anyone recovering them. I would suggest this if you are selling it. Even then I would reformat the PC and install Windows fresh for the next person so it gets rid of any hidden files you dont know about. When you reinstall, tell it to do a full reformat (not quick reformat). It will take a while but should erase any data that is left Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLizard Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I work with both sides of this occasionally, confidential data that needs destroying and people with destroyed data that needs recovering. For recovery as long as the data is physically there the third party we work with charge 800 a day and havent failed yet, we are talking partially burnt tapes that havent been used for 25+ years, they are all scientists in lab coats i have no idea what they do but their damn good... On the other side one of the companies we do IT server support for are a large steel manafacturer 2500 deg c seems to just about do the trick with hard drives, takes about 1 second for it to dissapear and not even a nerd in a lab coat can get that back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJsickboy Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I run a computer maintenance company and I can assure you that there are only 2 ways to completely destroy your data on the hard disc. Trust me on this, residuals will still be there unless you do one of two things. Buy software that is very expensive to wipe the disc and it has to be to government level or data can still be retreived or... Destroy the hard drive unit itself.. ie Hammer, Brick breaker, fire etc. Be warned though that unless the disc has fractured you can still retreive data from it. The police retreive data from hard drives that have been in house fires etc. Just me 2p's worth so like Dcash5 says...Hammer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmac Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I find 20 metres of salt water pretty effective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 If you are selling it, I'd simply go and buy a replacement cheapy drive and chuck that in with it, and keep/smash your old drive. Is it worth the risk of the next owner finding... C:\Documents and Settings\Jim\My Documents\pr0n\favs\furry\hot_goat_sex.mpg? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJsickboy Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I find 20 metres of salt water pretty effective. does that conform to the WEE directive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmac Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Never had a complaint yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Buy software that is very expensive to wipe the disc and it has to be to government level or data can still be retreived or... I used to have a great Seagate prog that allowed you to do proper low level reformats of the drive. Shame I cant seem to find it any more. Now a days they charge a fortune for doing something very simple. I can see in Windows how it would leave a trail of mess to follow, but there should be something cheap and easy to do in DOS to love level format the disk. Depends how desperate you are. Maybe we should do some experiements and see if MrLizzards lot can get it back. Sure the geeks there would be up for some fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJsickboy Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 When a customer asks us for this service we mark the old HD with a permanent marker infront of the customer, fit a new HD for £10 and hand back the old one in bits!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chesterfield Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 The ONLY way to be certain that none of your old files can be recovered by anyone from your old hard drive, is to destroy it. The least messy route would be to take the hard drive apart, get the actual platters of the disk, and destroy them. Sticking it in a vice and drilling numerous holes through it would do the trick too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 What about an oxyacetylene torch. Anyone want to try that?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLizard Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Buy software that is very expensive to wipe the disc and it has to be to government level or data can still be retreived or... I used to have a great Seagate prog that allowed you to do proper low level reformats of the drive. Shame I cant seem to find it any more. Now a days they charge a fortune for doing something very simple. I can see in Windows how it would leave a trail of mess to follow, but there should be something cheap and easy to do in DOS to love level format the disk. Depends how desperate you are. Maybe we should do some experiements and see if MrLizzards lot can get it back. Sure the geeks there would be up for some fun m8, at 800 quid a day im sure they would come round and have dinner at your house if you wanted them too, tho i think they try to avoid social occasions if possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beavis Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 You could try this http://www.killdisk.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 Thanks a lot for all the suggestions, guys. The data I am concerned about (if I eventually sell or dispose of the computer) is mainly my work and financial details (online banking etc.). It sounds as if a re-format and re-load of Windows would prevent any casual user accessing the files. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilTheForce Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Like people say if you don't need to keep the hard drive then introduce it to a world of pain. If you need to keep it (or sell the comp with the HD) I recommend Nuke & Boot. It's free, has won a bunch of certificates and I've used it in the past to great effect. http://www.dban.org/ Be warned though a full wipe with this takes hours because it is super thorough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanS16 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Thanks a lot for all the suggestions, guys. The data I am concerned about (if I eventually sell or dispose of the computer) is mainly my work and financial details (online banking etc.). It sounds as if a re-format and re-load of Windows would prevent any casual user accessing the files. Cheers. To be honest a reformat and re-installation of windows will stop most people. It is highly unlikely anyone will be able to read your data unless they really know what they are doing. I know macs can do a pretty secure disk erase which deletes all data then fills the disk with random data then erases it again. May be helpful if you know someone with one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maccaman Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I downloaded Pareto Logic when I had to wipe files of my dads computer. It cost me about $30. It allows you to select individually which files to erase & gives you the option of which level you want to use. I used the 7 passes one which I think does the trick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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