At 01:38 PM 11/18/2002 -0500, you wrote: >Someone reported that after deleting files, defrag will safely remove all >traces, but . I doubt it. Is this true? >Rob Not with Windows Defrag, but Norton Utility Speedisk WITH a <wipe> enabled will do a pretty good job. The Wipe cleans up the the free space where deleted files are stored. Whether or not deleted files can be recovered depends on how much time and money the interested party is willing to spend in order to recover any old data. I have never heard of a "Government Wipe", however, the government does have defined security standards for removal of data from a hard drive. Older versions of Norton Utility use to come with a independent appellant of Wipe, that you could set up to run 3 times, in-order to meet this standard. Powerdesk comes with comes a utility that will allow you to delete files in a unrecoverable manner.http://www.freepctech.com/rode/019.shtml If you want to sterilize a drive try Autoclav http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/. Rode The NOSPIN Group http://freepctech.com Curious about the people moderating your messages? Visit our staff web site: http://freepctech.com/staff.shtml