lowie

I'm selling my PC at home to upgrade.
I do quite a bit of work on my PC and have some confidential files which I have deleted (deleted from the recycle bin).
I have been told that these files can still be accessed though using the right software????
Is this true, and if so, how do I completely wipe any deleted files permanently without wiping currently active program files etc???
I need to do this before I sell my PC as there is confidential client information on there.

PLEASE HELP!!!!

Chris L

Yep it's true. When you 'delete' a file from your PC, what the PC actually does is mark the file so that it can be overwritten. It doesn't actually remove the file. Have a look at this link which will show you some utilities you can download to effectively delete files.

Chris

beemerboy

defrag the drive!!!

BB

lowie

Chris L - thanks

Jason - I'm not at all up on the IT side of things!!! Could you put it in very simple terms for me!!!!! Thanks!!!

super_si

Sorry to jump onto this.

How long is it until data cannot be got back.
Remember when my raid array crashed. i went back to 2 separete IDE drives.

Well i lost 2 valuble pieces coursework i need. 4months, loads formats.

Can i get it back?

Si

Chris L

Defrag will not remove 'deleted' files!!!

Chris

T.J

reformat it

4lex L

Formatting the drive will not permanently remove the files; the data can still be recovered by a professional data restoration company. The area on the hard drive where the data is stored needs to be overwritten several times. The software we use at work overwrites the files using the Gutmann algorithm with 35 passes. It is called Eraser and may be downloaded from:

www.tolvanen.com

It depends on how confidential the files are but if it was me I'd just format it, reload the OS and pass it on. It is unlikely the next owner is going to be interested enough to go through all the bother required to recover the original data.

Rex Hunt

If your that concernd buy a new cheap hard drive, and state that when you sell it.

[Edited by Rex Hunt - 4/29/2003 1:28:03 PM]

lowie

Won't I lose all my programs if I buy a new hard drive?

I had the PC built by a friend of a friend so I just plugged it in and off I went. All the programs had already been installed etc.???

ajm

Download the latest version of PGP and use the freespace wipe. It overwrites all free space whilst encrypting it using the PGP algorithm. You can set the number of passes - realistically 3 passes should be pretty much impossible to recover from.

The beauty of this program is that you can set it to automatically wipe any files in the recycle bin when you empty it. Also it wipes files that are deleted by the system such as temp files. The only downside is that it can slow things down a bit.