From what I have read, FDISK'ing a hard drive is one of the least safe
and easily restored with free shareware programs for that purpose.
The next level would be 'overwriting' the disk with zeros and opposing
characters several times.  Again, these are merely magnetic layers.
To strip the layers and read what is underneath, one would have to buy
a program.  Such as Lost and Found which you cannot buy anymore and
would have to find a used one.  If you have a damaged hard drive,
there are companies that can restore up to 94% of all the data on the
layers if they have all the pieces.  Cost is $2-6 thousand dollars.
If the disk has been software shredded really well, then it is a job
for law enforcement who use a machine that has a 1 in 4 billion error
rate.  Allegedly, in addition to the magnetic fields, there is
supposed to be a way of measuring between the platters where
information may also be recovered.  (Haven't you ever wondered how
they catch the spammers and virus writers?)

In 1998 a friend of mine that owned a pawn shop called and asked me to
come over.  He had taken in a laptop unlike anything he had ever seen.
In 1998 this thing was blazing fast, the Windows OS was more like XP
than 98, it had an antenna that flipped up and connected by some kind
of instant wireless to the internet somehow and was unreal how fast it
was.  There were no markings, was totally weatherproof, and we
couldn't access where it was from and who's it was.  We did have fun
for a few days surfing the net for free at speeds we couldn't get.  A
three letter government agency showed up on the 3rd day wanting their
computer back...

My point is, you might think you know what you are doing when you wipe
your disk clean.  You may not.  If you have any information that is
that personal or could be a liability to your business if customer
accounts or credit card information were compromised, you should
demagnetize it, pour acetone all over it, shred it physically, and
then melt it with intense heat.  A new disk is cheap enough.  Someone
else's used disk on eBay is even cheaper.

Charles Bennett

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