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From: Percival P. Cassidy on 6 Feb 2010 13:18
On 02/06/10 07:58 am, C wrote:

>>>> How does a person go about erasing absolutly everything on a hd? Is it
>>>> sucessful? I read that you can keep finding stuff, and keep finding it
>>>> again.

>>> The only way to permanently delete data off a hard disk is to destroy
>>> the hard disk. Give it a spin in your microwave; run over it with a semi
>>> truck; boil it in water; find a large magnet; hydrochloric acid is also
>>> good. I'm sure if you use your imagination, you can think of other ways
>>> to destroy a hard drive. Permanently delete data and not destroying the
>>> hard drive isn't possible with modern forensic techniques. That said,
>>> these modern forensic techniques don't come cheap so doing a complete
>>> format and reinstalling your operating system should be enough ;:)

>> You are saying that writing some random pattern of bits in place of
>> the pattern of bits that represented a piece of music or an image will
>> still leave the original music or image accessible?
>>
>> I find that difficult to believe.

> Trust me, forensic techniques can find anything. Whether you believe it
> or not is irrelevant. Research it and you will change your beliefs.

Here is the FAQ posted by a company that specializes in forensic data
recovery:

http://www.evestigate.com/Computer%20Forensics%20FAQ.htm

Note the advice that a drive must be removed from service as soon as
possible because once the data has been overwritten it is too late.

Perce



From: C on 6 Feb 2010 14:14
Percival P. Cassidy wrote:


> Here is the FAQ posted by a company that specializes in forensic data
> recovery:
>
> http://www.evestigate.com/Computer%20Forensics%20FAQ.htm
>
> Note the advice that a drive must be removed from service as soon as
> possible because once the data has been overwritten it is too late.
>
> Perce
>
>
>

See Ken Blake's post.

--
C
From: Brian V on 6 Feb 2010 14:20
I have to look for an article I read. It was by an employee for Microsoft.
His blog. I got it from the tech guy on yahoo.ca/com (I don't know if his
page is still up though). There were two or three commands he put up for
educational purposes. They apparently completely erased your drives. But each
and everytime, he said they looked hard, and found stuff.

Can someone explain why I have Show hidden files on my computer, and I still
have found at least three instances where I went into the appropriate
folders, saw nothing and in a certain program by MISTAKE/FLUKE/WHO KNOWS HOW
there was some files in that same folder I see nothing in? Some temporary
files are like this. Some files are all over the place, I don't know why they
are there or what they do.

I support the idea to catch criminals, pedophiles, etc.

I myself have nothing to worry about in that regard. But, I need to be able
to handle my art (music, video, images, print, etc) in a legal manner and
cover my copyrights and trademarks if I make something. If I make something
and decide to release it or not, I have to get the credit and be able to
fight/win copyright infringments. Or not get sued by a customer. Certain
things may not get me rich, but it's putting a name out. Someone else doesn't
deserve any recognition for waht they didn't do. I'm sure, I'll be fine. But
I have to be able to erase certain things and move it somewhere else, or be
happy/content nobody else can access it in any way. Because, how will it be
explained when they have originals or the masters of my stuff? Sure lie
detector tests can get very advanced, and I can trace the sale/giving away of
my old computer, which may minimize the problem. But again, the damage may
have been done. 100+ people got my stuff like a virus, and who's to say I can
track all of them down for the next 10 years and silence music, video, image,
print, etc thieves. They got deals and got paid......Can I do anything?

Now in the situation I mentioned, and how forensic technology is highly
advanced: if someone were to steal/aquire anothers images, video or music and
run the files through another program to "erase" the original traces: Do
those new files have traces of where the original came from?
From: dwn dwn on 6 Feb 2010 14:53
On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 13:53:10 +0200, "amber" <amber(a)nospam.microsoft.news> wrote:

>could someone recommend good utiluty to permanently erase files, i.e. that
>deletes the file, then wipes and removes the data left over.
>
>Thank you.

Try erase at http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/

it's free and does a pretty job too. it also erase anything in the Recycle Bin.

From: John Wunderlich on 6 Feb 2010 15:45
=?Utf-8?B?QnJpYW4gVg==?= <BrianV(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:3605429C-CA0D-4E04-A6D5-ACB65A201A9C(a)microsoft.com:

> How does a person go about erasing absolutly everything on a hd?
> Is it sucessful? I read that you can keep finding stuff, and keep
> finding it again.
>
> Can you erase individual paritions?
>
> If I were to get rid of my computer (sell or give away) this info
> can help me. I make some music, and deal with video and images.
> Some of that could be a copyright issue or a legal trouble for me
> I don't need. I am not a professional musician, director, etc.
> What if I got there though? And if I deal with other peoples
> personal stuff, I need to be able to delete the stuff permanently.

Notwithstanding the other comments about some traces that might be
recovered by expensive forensic techniques, the program "Eraser" (at
least the 5.x versions) has the option to create a "Nuke Boot Disk".
You then boot your computer from this disk and it will wipe your
entire hard drive stem-to-stern with the selected wiping pattern.

-- John
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