Hi, Can anyone recommend a good FREE file shredder/secure delete utility? TIA -- Cheers! Fr Jack 90 CB450DX (The Moped) FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM skype: fr.jack (without the dot) We'll open up your eyes, just to check that you're asleep, again
In uk.rec.motorcycles, Fr Jack amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom: Yup. Eraser. http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
****! You rumbled me! Get on a cheap flight, get your arse to flook's for 6pm, saturday - beers n curry! -- Cheers! Fr Jack 90 CB450DX (The Moped) FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM skype: fr.jack (without the dot) We'll open up your eyes, just to check that you're asleep, again
Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Verdigris Take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. -- Wicked Uncle Nigel - "Oh Bollocks" said Pooh, having forgotten his lines. WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41 SBS#39 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner", Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big" Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha GTS1000
That's for **recovery** -- Cheers! Fr Jack 90 CB450DX (The Moped) FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM skype: fr.jack (without the dot) We'll open up your eyes, just to check that you're asleep, again
In uk.rec.motorcycles, Fr Jack amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom: *Ahem* That Eraser overwrites unused space as well, it will also completely destroy any data that's on the disk, too. Really, try it.
*Ahem* yerself! I know -- Cheers! Fr Jack 90 CB450DX (The Moped) FRJACKUKRM AT GMAIL DOT COM skype: fr.jack (without the dot) We'll open up your eyes, just to check that you're asleep, again
In uk.rec.motorcycles, Verdigris amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom: I know you've ridden my bike but you're a bit of a fuckwit, innit. You don't know anything about the product, clearly.
And you clearly have no idea about magnetic media. Verd is quite correct - products like that don't wipe the stuff beyond all recovery - if you know what you are doing and have appropriate tools then the data is recoverable. Mind you it's not something that a standard home user would be able to do but any one of Her Majesties forensic teams *would* be able to recover the 'erased' data. Phil
In uk.rec.motorcycles, Phil Launchbury amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom: I'd like to lay a bet on it.
Products *like* Eraser may not, but Eraser does - Up to 35 times, which puts the old data beyond the ken of even the most enthusiastic spook and his tame boffin.
You also need to consider things like the windows swap file or other caching methods, temp files and the like. The items you're looking to destroy are possibly duplicated or otherwise backed up already. The safest method of data destruction is sticking random data all over not just the blank stuff, but also over everything else too. Moving the clusters around on the drive (pick up the data, wipe underneath it, put the data back down again) due to file fragmentation and defragmentation. After doing that burn the disc to a crisp, grind it down and then throw it in the wind.
In uk.rec.motorcycles, Verdigris amazed us all with this pearl of wisdom: So was I and I'm not proud of it! I do have a personal interest in this product, not financial or anything like knowing who wrote it but only in the fact it's very good. Hey, just 'cos I called you a fuckwit doesn't mean I like you any less, it simply means that your description doesn't tally with my experience and since you provided no evidence that this product doesn't perform as well as the author says then that's what made me spit. That's true. I would like to see someone (from here) "crack" it though. I mean if I or anyone else puts some data on a disk and the erases it properly via the proper methods described within the product and it's then recoverable, I'll take it all back, but atm it's the only utility of its type that I trust to do the job. Not that there's anything mega- sensitive on here or anything, I just like to do a very low level "unused space" erase every now and again and sometimes other files that I right click and do. The only time I ever used it in anger was when I sold a PC to someone of this parish. Fair point and only because I don't have the knowledge to argue the toss ;-) The author says much the same except he goes into it a little deeper, he also quotes a paper about removing magnetic traces from solid state memory which is what this thing is based one. It's been a very long time since I read it btw because I've been using this product for about years. I'd still like to see it done. Not only would I feel smug if it couldn't be cracked but I'd also know that the quest for finding something better would be on!
My normal modus operandi when offloading an old hard disk / PC is to run Eraser off a floppy and zap the whole lot.
