Deleting Files Permanently

[Asiacat]

I'm about to sell my computer.

I want to delete copies of personal correspondence, bank details ms-money filee etc.

How can I delete them so that they cannot be recovered by any new owner minded to do so?

[Veazer]

I'm about to sell my computer.

I want to delete copies of personal correspondence, bank details ms-money filee etc.

How can I delete them so that they cannot be recovered by any new owner minded to do so?

Use Eraser, or a portable version of it like this.

[cdnvic]

Eraser will "shred" the data to the point that only very advanced forensics can recover it.

http://heidi.ie/eraser/

Apart from grinding the drive into fragments, or melting it down nothing is 100% unrecoverable.

[ThaidleHands]

The answer depends on the condition in which the OP intends to sell the computer. If he's expecting to sell it with the OS installed, then the best answer might be to pick up a new drive, install it and install the OS on it. The best way not to give away sensitive data is to not give away the media it's stored on. The OP can keep his old drive for installation in a new computer later.

Eraser's good but it can only erase what you tell it to erase. Unless overwriting the whole disk when booted from another disk it can leave behind files you didn't know were there, plus the current and back-up registries which often contain a wealth of personal information.

[ignis]

Would Re-format not clear everything ?

[cdnvic]

Would Re-format not clear everything ?

Nope.

[astral]

Would Re-format not clear everything ?

Reformat does not clear the data at all.

[ThaidleHands]

Would Re-format not clear everything ?

A zero-byte fill on a single pass in a low-level reformat can still leave a residual magnetic trace in the disk media which can be recovered forensically. US Department of Defense standards call for a 7-pass overwrite with random data and even that may not be absolutely secure. Eraser with do a 35-pass overwrite but for most large drives it's a very long process.

[Farma]

Ignis as others have said it won’t.

As an example one of my hard drives was reformatted a number of times over the years along with having win98, Me and XP installed as fresh installations.

I crashed the drive and used a recovery program to retrieve some photos and personal files I had on the disk. It recovered the files I was after but amazed me when it also recovered nearly 90% of a family photo file that was on the hard drive when I was using win95. I hadn’t reloaded these photos as I had burnt them to cdrom.

[gzu88bv]

Would Re-format not clear everything ?

Reformat does not clear the data at all.

What about re-partition and re-format??????????????

[Mid]

as others have indicated , if it's sensitive data , physically destroy the drive .

[RKASA]

format won't clean anything, erraser works vary well at three times wipe for personnel stuff.  Nobody is going to go to the effort and expense to recover it.

[OxfordWill]

You cant technically remove files unless you put the HDD in acid strong enough to burn the first several mms of each surface. Even burning it or blowing it up wouldnt usually be enough.

[cdnvic]

You cant technically remove files unless you put the HDD in acid strong enough to burn the first several mms of each surface. Even burning it or blowing it up wouldnt usually be enough.

Gets pretty molten when you grind it.

[taxexile]

there is a free programme called 'restoration' which will locate previously deleted files and either restore them or erase them "completely."

anybody have any experience with that utility ?

[maxbus1]

I'm about to sell my computer.

I want to delete copies of personal correspondence, bank details ms-money filee etc.

How can I delete them so that they cannot be recovered by any new owner minded to do so?

How much is your complete piece of mind worth? What would you pay to stop ID theft the day after you discover your bank account was overdrawn?

Just take out your hard drive and find another one and reload your windows and sell it.

If your old hard drive is still sitting on your kitchen table the day after you sell your pc, you will know FOR SURE nothing bad will happen. This is one thing that you CAN control. Be safe. I've had bank problems in the past. ID theft dosen't always happen quickly, it may take a year or two.

It's up to you.

[technocracy]

Oh come on - all the talk about DoD can recover this that and the other is just scaremongering! Most average users wouldn't have a clue how to even recover a permanently deleted file!

If I was selling my PC I would firstly with the operating system still on it go through and use a deletion tool to make permanent deletions THEN defragment the hard disk which in general will then move new data over the areas you deleted (this makes it hard for recovery software). Then reinstall Windows, ensuring I delete the partitions and recreated them. Obviously then format the partitions - a 'long' format would be the choice.

Sure the DoD, CIA, MI5 etc might beable recover something but no one with your average commercial file recovery software will get anything.

[britmaveric]

disk ko and run it for 3-5 sweeps