Disposing of deleted data.

To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?
Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?
Peter

On 2019-03-08 5:57 p.m., Peter Jason wrote:
To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?
Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?
Peter


BleachBit for Windows.

--
- "I am a Linux advocate. I am one with Linux, and Linux will guide me."
- "The Linux?"
- "The Linux is what gives an advocate his beard and weight issues."
- "It's an energy field created by all living things."
- "It surrounds us and penetrates us without consent."
- "Remember, an advocate can feel the Linux flowing through him."

On Sat, 09 Mar 2019 09:57:47 +1100, Peter Jason wrote:

To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?
Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?
Peter


SDelete - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/sys...nloads/sdelete


--
Kind regards
Ralph
🦊

On Sat, 09 Mar 2019 13:11:12 +1300, Ralph Fox
wrote:

On Sat, 09 Mar 2019 09:57:47 +1100, Peter Jason wrote:

To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?
Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?
Peter


SDelete - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/sys...nloads/sdelete

Thank you. I downloaded it and tried the 64
version, but I get a flash across the screen and
nothing else.
I found this in my sysinternals folder too, but
this gave the same results. I have Win10pro.

On 3/8/19 7:32 PM, Peter Jason wrote:
On Sat, 09 Mar 2019 13:11:12 +1300, Ralph Fox
wrote:

On Sat, 09 Mar 2019 09:57:47 +1100, Peter Jason wrote:

To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?
Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?
Peter


SDelete - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/sys...nloads/sdelete

Thank you. I downloaded it and tried the 64
version, but I get a flash across the screen and
nothing else.
I found this in my sysinternals folder too, but
this gave the same results. I have Win10pro.

sdelete64.exe C: -z
command prompt not clicking it in Explorer since if there are errors
you'll see what.

On 08/03/2019 23.57, Peter Jason wrote:
To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?
Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?

Maybe you should consider encrypting the hard disk instead.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.

On Wed, 27 Mar 2019 19:22:43 -0400, Wolf K
wrote:

On 2019-03-27 17:35, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 08/03/2019 23.57, Peter Jason wrote:
To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?

Reformatting doesn't wipe the "deleted" data. A utility like Recuva can
recover it. the only suer way to remove data from a HD is to destroy the
platter.

Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?

No. But there are utilities that will do this. They overwrite the disk
several times. "Forensic access" is a variable, however. For most
purposes, 7 or so overwrites are enough.


For most purposes, doing nothing beyond deleting the files is enough.


But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.


Yes. But that's enormous overkill for almost everyone.

In article , Wolf K
wrote:

To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?

Reformatting doesn't wipe the "deleted" data. A utility like Recuva can
recover it. the only suer way to remove data from a HD is to destroy the
platter.

that depends on the type of reformat.

Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?

No. But there are utilities that will do this. They overwrite the disk
several times. "Forensic access" is a variable, however. For most
purposes, 7 or so overwrites are enough.

once is enough.

Maybe you should consider encrypting the hard disk instead.

+1

But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.

not needed except for the truly paranoid.

In article , Ken Blake
wrote:

Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?

No. But there are utilities that will do this. They overwrite the disk
several times. "Forensic access" is a variable, however. For most
purposes, 7 or so overwrites are enough.

For most purposes, doing nothing beyond deleting the files is enough.

false. it's *very* easy to recover a deleted file.


overwriting one pass of 0s (or whatever value) is sufficient, whether
it's a single file or the entire drive.

But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.

Yes. But that's enormous overkill for almost everyone.

yep.

Wolf K wrote:
On 2019-03-27 17:35, Carlos E. R. wrote:
On 08/03/2019 23.57, Peter Jason wrote:
To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?

Reformatting doesn't wipe the "deleted" data. A utility like Recuva can
recover it. the only suer way to remove data from a HD is to destroy the
platter.

Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?

No. But there are utilities that will do this. They overwrite the disk
several times. "Forensic access" is a variable, however. For most
purposes, 7 or so overwrites are enough.

Maybe you should consider encrypting the hard disk instead.

+1

But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.

Best wishes,


Ouch.

So unnecessary.

diskpart
list disk
select disk 3
list partition # verify you're on the correct disk
clean all # *zeroes* every byte of the hard drive
# This can take hours. Pack a picnic lunch.
exit

Now, take HxD the hex editor, and skim through the
disk, and verify that the disk is indeed empty.

*******

You can also use a utility that does Secure Erase or
Enhanced Secure Erase, which are features of the
ATA command set (good for IDE or SATA drives, but not SCSI).
In those cases, the drive erases itself, and that takes hours
too.

Paul

On 28/03/2019 00.45, nospam wrote:
In article , Wolf K
wrote:

To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?

Reformatting doesn't wipe the "deleted" data. A utility like Recuva can
recover it. the only suer way to remove data from a HD is to destroy the
platter.

that depends on the type of reformat.

Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?

No. But there are utilities that will do this. They overwrite the disk
several times. "Forensic access" is a variable, however. For most
purposes, 7 or so overwrites are enough.

once is enough.

Maybe you should consider encrypting the hard disk instead.

+1

But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.

not needed except for the truly paranoid.

On the contrary, it makes things simpler.

What apparently the OP wants is to delete permanently whatever he
deletes, and for this he is prepared to copy everything to another disk,
format fully, and restore the data. This process takes many hours. And
would have to be repeated often, as soon as he does some work with that
sensitive material.

With full disk encryption you simply do nothing. You do not need to
destroy erased data, as it is not accessible being encrypted. Fast and
neat, and works every day, instantly. Someone steals the machine, the
data is safe.

The paranoid would worry whether full disk encryption in Windows is
reliable, and thus prefer secure deletion.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

In article , Carlos E.R.
wrote:

To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?

Reformatting doesn't wipe the "deleted" data. A utility like Recuva can
recover it. the only suer way to remove data from a HD is to destroy the
platter.

that depends on the type of reformat.

Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?

No. But there are utilities that will do this. They overwrite the disk
several times. "Forensic access" is a variable, however. For most
purposes, 7 or so overwrites are enough.

once is enough.

Maybe you should consider encrypting the hard disk instead.

+1

But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.

not needed except for the truly paranoid.

On the contrary, it makes things simpler.

destroying a disk is anything but simple, and not as easy as you might
think.

What apparently the OP wants is to delete permanently whatever he
deletes, and for this he is prepared to copy everything to another disk,
format fully, and restore the data. This process takes many hours. And
would have to be repeated often, as soon as he does some work with that
sensitive material.

it only needs to be done once.

With full disk encryption you simply do nothing. You do not need to
destroy erased data, as it is not accessible being encrypted. Fast and
neat, and works every day, instantly. Someone steals the machine, the
data is safe.

nobody said otherwise.

The paranoid would worry whether full disk encryption in Windows is
reliable, and thus prefer secure deletion.

that's what i said, that the paranoid would want to destroy the disk no
matter what.

and fde is available outside of windows, including in drive firmware
and encrypted enclosures.

On 28/03/2019 15.02, nospam wrote:
In article , Carlos E.R.
wrote:

To save using free-space wipers, can I just do an
intelligent image backup to another HDD, reformat
the original HDD and then restore the image back
to this?

Reformatting doesn't wipe the "deleted" data. A utility like Recuva can
recover it. the only suer way to remove data from a HD is to destroy the
platter.

that depends on the type of reformat.

Is there a facility in the .cmd to wipe clean a
drive beyond forensic access?

No. But there are utilities that will do this. They overwrite the disk
several times. "Forensic access" is a variable, however. For most
purposes, 7 or so overwrites are enough.

once is enough.

Maybe you should consider encrypting the hard disk instead.

+1

But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.

not needed except for the truly paranoid.

On the contrary, it makes things simpler.

destroying a disk is anything but simple, and not as easy as you might
think.

Me never said anything about destroying the disk. That was somebody else.


What apparently the OP wants is to delete permanently whatever he
deletes, and for this he is prepared to copy everything to another disk,
format fully, and restore the data. This process takes many hours. And
would have to be repeated often, as soon as he does some work with that
sensitive material.

it only needs to be done once.

Every time he works on the machine with sensitive material.


With full disk encryption you simply do nothing. You do not need to
destroy erased data, as it is not accessible being encrypted. Fast and
neat, and works every day, instantly. Someone steals the machine, the
data is safe.

nobody said otherwise.

The paranoid would worry whether full disk encryption in Windows is
reliable, and thus prefer secure deletion.

that's what i said, that the paranoid would want to destroy the disk no
matter what.

and fde is available outside of windows, including in drive firmware
and encrypted enclosures.



--
Cheers, Carlos.

In article , Carlos E.R.
wrote:


But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.

not needed except for the truly paranoid.

On the contrary, it makes things simpler.

destroying a disk is anything but simple, and not as easy as you might
think.

Me never said anything about destroying the disk. That was somebody else.

yep, and that's what i was replying to.

What apparently the OP wants is to delete permanently whatever he
deletes, and for this he is prepared to copy everything to another disk,
format fully, and restore the data. This process takes many hours. And
would have to be repeated often, as soon as he does some work with that
sensitive material.

it only needs to be done once.

Every time he works on the machine with sensitive material.

nope. only when erasing the drive. it also doesn't take that long
unless it's a very high capacity drive, such as 10tb.

On 28/03/2019 15.42, nospam wrote:
In article , Carlos E.R.
wrote:


But if you really want to prevent access, destroy the platters. Which
will destroy the HDD.

not needed except for the truly paranoid.

On the contrary, it makes things simpler.

destroying a disk is anything but simple, and not as easy as you might
think.

Me never said anything about destroying the disk. That was somebody else.

yep, and that's what i was replying to.

What apparently the OP wants is to delete permanently whatever he
deletes, and for this he is prepared to copy everything to another disk,
format fully, and restore the data. This process takes many hours. And
would have to be repeated often, as soon as he does some work with that
sensitive material.

it only needs to be done once.

Every time he works on the machine with sensitive material.

nope. only when erasing the drive. it also doesn't take that long
unless it's a very high capacity drive, such as 10tb.


He needs to erase the drive everytime he works on that sensitive
material. He dis not say anything about giving the drive, he is keeping
it. So everytime he works on the data, he needs to erase it.

Or, encrypt it instead. Just once.

--
Cheers, Carlos.