Secure Wipe and Delete

[planecrazy.eu]

Hey...

I lost some data recently, and found some software that got it all back, even stuff i deleted some time ago...

Out of curiosity, i scanned a machine that i am selling on EBay, and it has recovered every partition i have ever made, 90% are useless as i must have gone over them, but 5 or 6 partitions from the past have my data on, inc bank and passwords and company (IP)...

I was thinking, I have wiped windows XP, deleted all partitions and created them again, went for the long format and not quick, i thought there would never be much data left, how wrong hey.

So anyone know of Free or Paid tools that are good at getting rid of data for good?

Thanks...

[hellsbrink]

http://www.download.com/Digital-File-Shredder-Pro/3000-2144_4-10678807.html?tag=lst-4

seems to be rated highly

and I have used http://www.evidence-eliminator.com/ in the past which did do what it says....

[Mr Grumps]

Tuneup utilities in amongst all it's tools includes a shredder for your waste bin. It shreds to DOD 5220.22 standard which is the American Department of Defense standard. You can choose how many wipes it does. I believe nothing gets left behind. Also totally free up the space used by the deleted files.

[tallsandwich]

Or SDelete free from

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx

works to same standard.

[Saab Dastard]

I use DBAN (http://dban.sourceforge.net/).

SD

[S'land]

I use ERASER. Seems to work very well and is free. Wipes to DOD standards.

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

[Saab Dastard]

Interesting, I should have noted that there are (at least) two distinct categories of utility being discussed here -

File Shredder - to securely erase files and folders within an existing drive, without affecting the rest of the disk / partition.

Disk Wiping - to securely wipe the entire contents of a physical disk or partition.

Make sure you choose the right one! :eek:

SD

[None of the above]

I've never used this utility, but it might be what you are looking for.

Darik's Boot and Nuke

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

[planecrazy.eu]

Thanks for all that...

I have wiped the drive, and all is looking well... So thanks...

As SD said, there are 2 catagories here, and the other one, File Shredding i am going to be using on a daily basis to delete my files once finished with...

Going off in a different direction a little...

If i had a database of data, and deleted say 100 entries, can i get these entries back? and if so, are there tools out there that can delete such an instance, or am i asking too much? or does the database get rid of the entries good enough on its own.

I am talking about MYSQL and Access...

Thanks

[Saab Dastard]

If you have a recent valid backup, you may be able to recover the deleted data from that.

Obviously you would need to do it in such a way that you didn't roll back all changes to the database since the backup!

SD

[Tarq57]

As you've realized, "deleting" a file only removes the header. The file is still there, able to be recovered until overwritten by fresh data, and sometime recoverable (eg by computer forensics type programs) after overwriting.
This one (http://www.pprune.org/forums/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=3943042) seems to do a good job of file recovery.

[planecrazy.eu]

What one is that? Just takes me back here?

I have noticed that the file still remains...

My question was, when i delete records from a database, are they still recoverable, and if so, how can i make them unrecoverable? Talking about records and not the complete db

[Tarq57]

Sorry, I meant this one. (http://www.majorgeeks.com/Restoration_d4474.html)
(C/P the wrong link.)
This can recover files. And/or view possibly recoverable files. And/or delete possibly recoverable files for good.
For general file erasing (secure overwriting) I use Eraser, linked a few posts above. Very good.
Once you have deleted a file (or folder) using Windows, ie just to remove the header, you have to overwrite the free space, several times to be reasonably sure they aren't recoverable. Eraser (And Restoration, my link) will do that, but you have to erase free space on the entire disk. Takes a while.

[The late XV105]

I use the free CCleaner utility to keep my computers free of unwanted junk. Apart from being a doddle to use and covering all areas of deletion I need, it has file deletion options ranging from fast (a "normal" delete and therefore recoverable) to "Secure", which is slower but done to NSA standard with seven overwrites of the freed-up space.

[Tarq57]

I use Ccleaner also. Very handy. But did you ever try using a recovery application to find out if those files were really erased?
I have, and the results were surprising, that is, some were fully recoverable after a so-called NSA 7 pass wipe. I know of one other with the same result.
Posted the question here (http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=14006&st=0)

[ZFT]

I too use CCleaner and Eraser (http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/) for all my deletes.

Seems to work fine.

[Keef]

When I dispose of an old computer, I remove and smash the HD. If I sell the old one and the buyer wants it with a HD, a second-hand HD off eBay for a few quid is the easy fix.

[hellsbrink]

If I dispose of an old PC it normally means that it will never work as a whole and anything that still does work gets kept as "spares".

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Why buy a brand new system if all you need is more Ram or a new graphics card? Need more space? Buy an extra drive. No spare IDE/SATA connections? Buy a controller board. No space for that? Buy an external drive.

If you HAVE to have a new PC but the old one is still fine, then you have a second PC to use for backing things up or, if you are in a house like mine with two teens at college, another PC you can use for browsing/documents until it explodes. Makes sense to me.

[ground_star]

Boot 'n' Nuke is great if you're ditching old systems

If you want something to help with your current PC, PGP Desktop is good. Not only will it do secure (to DOD standard) file deletion but you can also encrypt your disk in there too - as used by big corporates like RBS (believe it or not)

[Muffin Themule]

It is almost certain the "deleted" records will still be there, but "flagged" as deleted. That is how all database systems I have used work, and I don't think MYSQL or Access will be any different. :uhoh: