Community Answers

1. 

   2-1-09

   cnauta70 says:

   MediaWiper Pro. Use it 3 times to write over and you won’t ever be able to recover anything from that drive again.

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2. 

   2-2-09

   cotojo says:

   If you wish to remove items that have been deleted via the Recycle Bin use a free File Shredder with the option to Shred Free Disk Space:
   Tutorial:
   For a complete Disk Wipe:
   Use DBAN which is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers, preventing identity theft and prevents / hinders thorough forensic recovery

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3. 

   2-3-09

   baskinghobo says:

   100% agree with cotojo! i was about to say isactly the same thing until i read cotjo’s answer.Use DBAN CD and DVD for your type of question.cotojo sorry but i cant put a thumbs up to your answer, need to be level 2!

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4. 

   2-4-09

   Will says:

   I have run into this problem too. A year ago my Master Card was defrauded and I suspected that someone in my building was able to retrieve credit card info from my hard drive.

   Frankly, if you hadn’t used a special “safe file deletion” to begin with, you cannot now permanently delete that file later.

   Download the trial version of “Tune up Utilities” [PC Tools] and you will see this clearly. If you safely delete a file using Tune up Utilities, you cannot then retieve it. But if just delete a file to the recycle bin, that file can always we retrieved [though some are in a "bad" file state, the name of your deleted files will always be visible during file recovery.

   The best idea is to completely clean the hard disk using a special boot disk which is quite easy to make. But you need a copy of Windows XP or Vista so you can reinstall the operating system. A system restore using, for example, the excellent Norton Ghost 9 will not work after the disk has been wiped clean.

   I have the original Windows XP disks with my computer so I was able to completely wipe my hard disk [slow rate clean -more secure the wipe] and then simply reinstall my operating system.

   I am not familiar with the “boot erase” diskd mentioned my other responders, which no doubt work; I downloaded “Webroot / Windows Washer which is really easy to download from any file share program such as Utorrent, bearshare or limewire. The main program is a history cacher eraser but check the aspects of this simple program and you will find”make a boot erase disk” Put a blank CD in the drive and the hard drive eraser can be made in the matter of a less than a minuter.

   But, to repeat myself, you need an operating system to reinstall after this hard disk cleaning is done.

   You simply put the CD in the drive, turn off the computer and when it starts press the correct key to boot the computer into the CD. On my toshiba laptop / satellite, that is f12

   Good luck

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