On 16 Jul 2006 at 15:13, BettyHouse wrote:

> After deleting sensitive information from a hard drive is there a way
> short of wiping the drive to make sure that the information cannot be
> accessed.  Private information has been deleted and all cache files,
> internet files etc. deleted but I know that the information is still
> technically there.  I had hoped to avoid having the hard drive
> completely wiped.  Any information on an alternative to completely
> wiping the hard drive would be appreciated.  Thank You - BJ 

  Briefly, no.  Deleting the files only removes the pointers to the latest 
version of the file contents; rewriting the files may simply create a new 
version while leaving the old around.  The only way to be sure that the 
contents of a deleted file are really gone is to overwrite all of the "free" 
space on the drive.

  In fact, one pass may not be enough.  I heard just today from a forensic 
expert who has found only one product that, after three passes, left no file 
traces that he could recover.
  If the people you're afraid will read the disk won't have his fancy tools, 
then one pass may be enough for you.  If the people you want to hide it from 
can put the platters under an electron microsocope, SEVEN passes *might* be 
barely sufficient.

David Gillett, CISSP

             Do you want to signoff PCSOFT or just change to
                    Digest mode - visit our web site:
                   http://freepctech.com/pcsoft.shtml