Deleted but Not Gone (Must read, unless you have a computer science degree, IMHO)

NY Times ^ | November 3, 2005 | THOMAS J. FITZGERALD

[neverdem]

Maintaining privacy in the era of digital information requires work on a number of fronts, whether fending off spyware, protecting important files with encryption or configuring a Wi-Fi hot spot to keep interlopers off a wireless network.

One basic privacy measure, however, is easily overlooked: proper data destruction.

Deleting confidential data completely is essential when donating or selling old computers, and it can also help maintain privacy on computers that may end up lost or stolen. And for businesses looking for ways to comply with the security requirements of laws like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a sound policy on data control and destruction is crucial.

When normal deletion methods like the Recycle Bin or the delete command are used, the computer's operating system, for the sake of speed, creates an illusion that data has been deleted. In fact, it merely earmarks that region of a disk or drive as being available for new data to overwrite the old data. Until that overwriting occurs, the old data can be retrieved with undelete programs and tools used by data recovery labs and law enforcement agencies.

There are, however, several options for securely eliminating data from hard disks, U.S.B. flash drives and other storage media. These programs overwrite data with meaningless characters to render it unrecoverable with today's data recovery techniques. Some of the programs can overwrite entire drives...

--snip--

For example, Darik's Boot and Nuke, known also as DBAN, is a free open-source program available at dban.sourceforge.net. It runs on Windows computers and offers six methods to overwrite data, including a Defense Department standard (DoD 5220.22-M) that can overwrite the disk three times, as well as a method called PRNG Stream Wipe, which can make a user-defined number of disk overwrites using randomly generated characters.

[Nik Naym]

"How all that old basic stuff comes back - "
"...and systems running off the "color crystal" a blazing 1.44mhz "

Speaking of remembering old stuff, that "color crystal" would have been 3,579,545 Hz. Aw heck, while I am at it, the vertical freq would be 59.94 Hz, and the horizontal would be 15,734 Hz. Lets see...was it the blanking interval that was 62.5 microseconds?.....it's all a little fuzzy, I haven't dealt with NTSC in nearly 10 years.

Do I win the pocket protector?

[Born Conservative]

Try this (from the Word Help file):

Open an earlier version of a document
On the File menu, click Versions.
Click the version of the document you want to open.
Click Open.
This version contains all the previously saved versions.



If that doesn't work, go to Microsoft's website; on the left hand side click "communities", then forums,office, Word,General. You can search or you can post the question there. You can pretty much be guaranteed to get an answer that will work.

[AFreeBird]

Yep, computer forensics has gotten quite good.

Random generated patterns overwriting free space (multiple times) is a good option.

Still, US GOV; DOD, Spook central Tempest specifications require the complete physical destruction of the data medium when its retired. Even media that's NEVER been used!

[AFreeBird]

Norton 6.0 (I still have the floppies!) still had it also but no longer ---- law enforcement, IMHO, was the reason for4 removing that basic security option.

Yes, but open source programs can and still do employ such processes. Why? Cause they're imported from outside the US by-passing US laws.

[Poser]

G=C800:5
might do the job.

Got any geeks out there?

[PAR35]

doesn't hurt the trade-in value

Trade in value? My Osborne is a collector's item. The others I use until they are ready for the landfill. If you don't upgrade software, you don't have to upgrade hardware.

[GOPJ]

You might want to try TweakNow RegCleaner. It's free and seems to pick up stuff other programs miss.

[Rennes Templar]

Thanks I'll try it.

[TheSarce]

This (#20) might be useful...

[El Gato]

Or you can just format the hard drive 7 times and save yourself the money.

Not as good as the multiple random overwrites. Formating writes the same thing every time. Theoretically it could still leave a faint trace of the original information. (VERY theoretically, and unless it's the government, or another government, you are trying to hide the data from, the reformatting is probably good enough).

[ChildOfThe60s]

---

When you get rid of an old computer, pull the hard drive. A screwdriver and a hammer should finish the job.

That's what I do. Bashing the bejesus out of the old drive doesn't hurt the trade-in value, and it sure does protect your information. And it's fun. :-)

---

Great minds think alike. The low tech solution to the high tech conundrum.

[AFreeBird]

Take out the platters, use a really, really strong magnet on them, and then make wind chimes out of them.

[therut]

I'm taking my old computer to the farm to target practice. Then I am going to burn,melt it in the deer hunting pit fire. What is left when cool will be buried.

[upchuck]

Y'all notice how the NY Slimes has started slamming you in the face with an ad before you get to the article page?

Bastards!

And they wonder why they're loosing profits.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[ntnychik]

Ping
See #22

[Lancey Howard]

I didn't see anybody mention Webroot's "Window Washer" - - do you know anything about that program? I use it but I have no idea what it actually does.

[MarkL]

Why seven times? Wouldn't one time do the trick?

No, because residual magnetic images can still be picked up, even after 7 times. However, not many agencies in the world are able to recover data that thouroughly deleted, if you get my drift. For "normal" users, a DOD standard erase is usually OK, but to be absolutely, positivly sure, you need to erase the drive to DOD standards, then put it through a metal shredder. I'm NOT kidding. That's a requirement at some government installations.

Mark

[MarkL]

Or you can just format the hard drive 7 times and save yourself the money.

Absolutely NOT! Using DOS or Windows to "format" a drive does NOT erase the data, and it's easily recovered. Using a "low level format" multiple times might (depending on the utility... It may actually only delete the MBR and partition table, and just verify the rest of the drive, leaving the data in tact) overwrite the data with the same characters over and over again, so forensic recovery hardware and software will still be able to recover most, if not all of the data.

In order to conform to DOD standards, random data must overwrite each byte a minimum (I believe) of 7 times. Then it becomes extremely difficult to recover the data.

Mark

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

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