How do you securely delete data from a drive?

Is there any good software that securely delete the data?

"Peter" wrote in message
...
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?


Plastic Explosive is reasonably soft and pliable and perfect for permanently
erasing data from a hard drive.

Seriously though: what are you trying to erase that needs to be done
securely? If it is just a drive that you wish to prevent personal data
being recovered from it then one of the many secure deletion utilities
available for free is way way more than adequate. In fact deleteing the
file and over writing it with another is generally adequate. If, on the
other hand the drive contains military grade secrets, then refer to my first
paragraph.

"Peter" wrote in message
...
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?


Not an XP question, but I use Eraser (http://eraser.heidi.ie/). It can
securely delete your the data and wipe your the free space; can also create
a DBAN (http://www.dban.org/) "Nuke Boot Disk" for blatting partition(s) at
boot-time. There is a choice of depth levels (different algorithms & number
of passes) - because "securely" is a relative term.

Failing that, Googlus Amicus Est.

On Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:24:22 -0800, Peter
wrote:

Is there any good software that securely delete the data?
SDelete v1.51
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897443.aspx

Peter wrote:
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?


This is another solution, that uses a feature inside hard
drives (but not SCSI drives). They put an erase feature
in the disk standards.

"drive internal secure erase command"
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDEraseReadMe.txt

Paul

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Peter wrote:
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?


This is another solution, that uses a feature inside hard
drives (but not SCSI drives). They put an erase feature
in the disk standards.

"drive internal secure erase command"
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDEraseReadMe.txt

Paul

As of 21:08 PST, both links are broken.

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Peter wrote:
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?
... [offer of two apparently broken links]

A quick Google led to numerous links concerning Secure Erase,
and then came an apparent government-standard document,
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/ni...00-88_rev1.pdf
which approves Secure Erase. Caveat emptor and all that jazz.

"Anthony Buckland" wrote in message
...

"Paul" wrote in message
...
Peter wrote:
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?


This is another solution, that uses a feature inside hard
drives (but not SCSI drives). They put an erase feature
in the disk standards.

"drive internal secure erase command"
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDEraseReadMe.txt

Paul

As of 21:08 PST, both links are broken.

Works for me.

"Olórin" wrote in message
...
"Peter" wrote in message
...
Is there any good software that securely delete the data?


Not an XP question, but I use Eraser (http://eraser.heidi.ie/). It can
securely delete your the data and wipe your the free space; can also
create a DBAN (http://www.dban.org/) "Nuke Boot Disk" for blatting
partition(s) at boot-time. There is a choice of depth levels (different
algorithms & number of passes) - because "securely" is a relative term.

I tried eraser and on the whole I like it, but I got a curious result.

IE stopped working right after I ran eraser to clean unused disk space, C
drive.
The symptoms are IE thinks it is connected to a website, but it fails to
display most of the screen.

A shutdown and start cured it.

Is IE using disk blocks in sloppy ways?

I'm running XP SP3, and IE 7.0.

Failing that, Googlus Amicus Est.

Googlensis teum amicum est.

Grumble, grumble, grumble. :-)