How to wipe clean all traces on PC?
- Thread starter Randy
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All you need is a single overwrite with random data. Doing it multiple times is great, but all its really doing is taking longer. As the data was deleted as soon as it was overwritten the first time.
The operating system itself has a lot of info within it. You'd be best to delete it. Securely wipe the drive then reinstall the OS.
You do this with a bootable CD that can run a secure erase utility.
http://www.google.ie/#hl=en&source=...=&aq=0&oq=Bootable+Secure&fp=ca9b89c6a118c111
I'll add my vote that CCleaner is a great little app. Apart from the erase functionality it cleans out all the temp crud on your windows. Some PC's speed up dramatically afterwards.
No, if you format and reinstall it's gone (bar some NSA forensic analysis of magnetic resonance on the disk platters or some other MiB technique).
redskyatnigh
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redskyatnigh
Registered User
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Easiest way and it takes only ten mins and anyone can do it
1. Was your PC made by the main manufacturers, Dell, HP ,....
2. Was it made since 2004
3. on start up press ctrl, alt & F11 all the same time.... wait about two seconds after pressing the power on button.
4. You will be taken to a restore factory settings page.
5. Click restore, sit back and relax and your PC will be clean in less than ten mins and your programs will be set back to their orginal state when you took it out of the box... for example all trail software will start back to day one
1. Was your PC made by the main manufacturers, Dell, HP ,....
2. Was it made since 2004
3. on start up press ctrl, alt & F11 all the same time.... wait about two seconds after pressing the power on button.
4. You will be taken to a restore factory settings page.
5. Click restore, sit back and relax and your PC will be clean in less than ten mins and your programs will be set back to their orginal state when you took it out of the box... for example all trail software will start back to day one
No it doesn't. We did it in college as part of a computer forensics project. Put some files on a disk. Format it. Then recover them. We could do it, and we didn't put much effort in either. Basically just downloaded some linux software from the web. The files we recovered were mixed up but readable. We just had to prove it could be done.
Thats doesn't wipe the data either. It probably doesn't even format the disk just deletes the files.
Deleting files doesn't delete them. It just marks the space available to be rewritten. But it isn't overwritten until someone actually copies data on that space.
Which is what the secure erase tools to. They overwite all the space with random data. Once is enough. But multiple passes is to be sure to be sure.
Which is why they take ages to run on a large drive, and why deleting all files doesn't.
Which is what the secure erase tools to. They overwite all the space with random data. Once is enough. But multiple passes is to be sure to be sure.
Which is why they take ages to run on a large drive, and why deleting all files doesn't.
No one is arguing to the contrary.
Maybe you did a quick format. If you delete the partition table, create new partitions, full format, and install a new OS . . well I don't think you're recovering anything after that, college forensics notwithstanding.
I think the point is that this was something you learned in college and is not something that average Joe or Joesphine User is familiar with or would be bothered to do.
The OP asked how to wipe a PC so that he/she could do a good deed and pass it on to his/her friend. Following the suggestions in this thread will satisfy that request unless the 'friend' turns out to be some identity-theft-seeking-weirdo...
The OP asked how to wipe a PC so that he/she could do a good deed and pass it on to his/her friend. Following the suggestions in this thread will satisfy that request unless the 'friend' turns out to be some identity-theft-seeking-weirdo...
You can get programs to recover paritions, bootsectors, and reformatted drives. Its not rocket science. Only installing the OS overwrites data and then only the part of the disk where the OS is. The rest of the disk the data is not overwritten. Its just logic. Deleting files and formating drives doesn't wipe data.
I made that point earlier.
Of course you don't know whats going to happen to the drive after you give it to someone. They might just decide to dump it, and buy a new PC.
The point is some of you are posting incorrect information. Formating and reinstalling the drive does not wipe the data from the drive.
Therefore you SHOULD run a secure erase on the disk.
This is correct. My earlier posts were not entirely accurate
. Following a re-installation of an OS one would need to do a secure erase of free space to eliminate the possibility of files being recovered.Not being smart but what's the point of it then?
If the data was deleted after 1 pass why even have the 3, 7 or 35 passes and why is doing it multiple times great?
Not entirely sure to be honest. I think in theory you can get old data off a drive if its been on it a long time, though something to do with magnetic thingybobs. But I looked into it, and aparently its never been actually done in practice. Not that anyones saying anyway. There maybe some other techniques to read overwritten data but I'm guessing thats pretty remote even from someone with time on their hands just digging around on old machines pulled from skips.