getting a new computer in a month or 2 so im going to try and sell the one i got at present...... but im a bit worried about data on the computer been recoverd at a later date if i do a destructive recovery will that get rid of all the data im running xp by the way
cheers

The standard British Army method of ensuring that data was never retrieved from a hard disc involved an angle grinder and a can of petrol, but that may be a little extreme....

Safest way is to buy a virgin hard disc and fit it, keeping the old HD.

If you don't go this way, get one of the various 'data shredding' programs around - look on Google for a few - and run a couple on your PC. Don't just run delete. Even if you empty your Waste Bin it's still possible for people to recover data until, and sometimes even after, the parts of the disc that held the data have been rewritten with new stuff.

The data destruction software overwrites areas of disc that have held data with random byte patterns until no trace of the original data is left, even to sophisticated data recovery techniques.

Once you've purged the disc like this, you can then reformat it and reinstall the operating system.

Joe

Mr PT has been told about a programme called DBAN which is supposed to work by writing 0's all over the HD it can be found at

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

PT

Use AutoClave, you can download it from:

http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/

or get it as part of the Ultimate Boot CD which has lots of other useful stuff:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

is this stuff reliable as far as securing permenant deletion?

two words - 'lump' and 'hammer'!

Failing that get take the HDD apart and smash it up until your hearts content.

Or send it to me and I can get it shredded free of charge!

The only way to secure permenant deletion is to delete the physical hard drive from the face of the planet. I find lump hammers are pretty good for the task. Any other way of deleting files can normally be recovered if people want to spend sufficient money.

The only way to secure permenant deletion is to delete the physical hard drive from the face of the planet. I find lump hammers are pretty good for the task.

It's also makes for good stress relief:thumbsup:.

is this stuff reliable as far as securing permenant deletion?

Nothing is really, it just depends on how badly a person wants to recover the data..........

Have a look at Active Kill Disk (http://www.killdisk.com/)

Has anyone noticed that this thread is nearly two years' old, and was resurrected by someone who seems to have gone back to the beginning of SF, and resurrected several old threads, it seems just to boost his/her post count.

Has anyone noticed that this thread is nearly two years' old, and was resurrected by someone who seems to have gone back to the beginning of SF, and resurrected several old threads, it seems just to boost his/her post count.

OMG, no I didn't, well spotted Ann. I needs to check original posting dates more closely. :thumbsup:

Has anyone noticed that this thread is nearly two years' old, and was resurrected by someone who seems to have gone back to the beginning of SF, and resurrected several old threads, it seems just to boost his/her post count.

We are always being told to search the forums before posting a thread.

Maybe this user is doing just that?

Has anyone noticed that this thread is nearly two years' old, and was resurrected by someone who seems to have gone back to the beginning of SF, and resurrected several old threads, it seems just to boost his/her post count.

Your always telling people that a thread has been done before so whats your problem

Your always telling people that a thread has been done before so whats your problem

Doesn't like noobs?

if the hard disk of 100gb is over-written with data significant enough to cover the entire size again(another 100gb), then one formats it again, how could anyone recover data covering double the drive full capacity, . ie it means recovering data exceeding the drive size!!!