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From: amber on 5 Feb 2010 06:53
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.

From: Don Phillipson on 5 Feb 2010 08:57
"amber" <amber(a)nospam.microsoft.news> wrote in message news:%23rsCNnlpKHA.5224(a)TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> could someone recommend good utiluty to permanently erase files, i.e. that
> deletes the file, then wipes and removes the data left over.

Google finds 1,560,000 results for "wipe files utility" in 0.31 seconds.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
From: C on 5 Feb 2010 11:02
Don Phillipson wrote:
> "amber" <amber(a)nospam.microsoft.news> wrote in message news:%23rsCNnlpKHA.5224(a)TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> could someone recommend good utiluty to permanently erase files, i.e. that
>> deletes the file, then wipes and removes the data left over.
>
> Google finds 1,560,000 results for "wipe files utility" in 0.31 seconds.
>

Yeah, but which search result is safe and which search result is drive
by malware?

--
C
From: Paul on 5 Feb 2010 13:47
amber 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 Heidi Eraser. It's free.

http://eraser.heidi.ie/

There is also a tool provided with the OS, but it would only work
well for an NTFS file system. The tool is called "cipher" and would
be available in WinXP Pro version. "Cipher" would be a complementary
tool, something you might use if you hadn't been using Heidi so far.
"Cipher" will only erase 4GB of white space on FAT32, so is not the
best choice for a FAT32 file system.

(If you click the following link, it will download a PDF document
from the SANS Institute. You need to correct the file extension,
by adding ".pdf" to the end of the file name once it downloads,
before you can open the document with Acrobat Reader, and read
more about how to securely delete files.)

http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/incident/secure_file_deletion_fact_or_fiction_631?show=631.php&cat=incident

The problem with secure deletion, is Windows is a "leaky bucket".
There are so many ways for fragments of information to accidentally
be stored in the wrong place on the computer, that the only
way to really be sure you removed sensitive information, is
to delete the entire disk. For example, imagine Microsoft Word
storing "temporary" copies of the current document you're
editing. They may not be visible later, but sectors on the
disk may contain copies of the Word document you were working
on. That is what I mean by "leaky". It may not be obvious to
the user, that their information is being splattered about.
You may think, "oh, my file is right here", but it may be
here, and here, and here... No amount of Heidi helps when a
computer program is a "litter bug".

A solution for this, is to use OSes that require no local storage
on hard drives at all. A Linux LiveCD comes to mind. (The good ones
don't mount hard drive partitions unless asked to. And store
intermediate results in RAM only.) When you shut off the computer power,
the contents of RAM will discharge, and any temporary files or fragments
will disappear at the same time. So there are setups that might be more
amenable to controlling information flow, but they won't be pleasant or
convenient.

Good luck,
Paul
From: John Wunderlich on 5 Feb 2010 15:20
"amber" <amber(a)nospam.microsoft.news> wrote in
news:#rsCNnlpKHA.5224(a)TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl:

> 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.
>

I've always liked freeware "Eraser"
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser>

-- John
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