Some of you might thing that after you click the "Empty Recycle Bin" button on your windows computer that the data you deleted is gone forever; this is not the case. You also might have been led to believe that reformatting your hard drive completely destroys all of your data; this is also not the case.
In reality all you are removing is the reference to your data on your hard drive, not the data itself. Since the data you meant to remove is still on your hard drive anyone with the correct tools could easily have access to it. There are hundreds of examples of where this might cause a problem but anyone who is selling or donating their computer hardware should defiantly be concerned.
In this situation it would be beneficial to have a tool that would completely overwrite all the data on your PC. One such tool that I have recently become familiar with is called DBAN short for "Darik's Boot and Nuke." This tool will allow you to boot from a CD and completely wipe your hard drive of any and all data. It works by writing random data over your hard drive hundreds of times which "prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis."
Check out DBAN's website for more information: http://dban.sourceforge.net/
This software provides an easy way to be certain that selling or donating your old computer hardware will not result in identity theft. If you have any questions on using the software feel free to contact me.
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2 comments:
Good luck with the site. It looks good so far.
Hmm, I agree this is an effective way to format the HD. If any of you out there would like my custom program, feel free to contact me via AIM. My screen name is PFR. I've developed a tool that will permanently delete any file(s) or folder(s). Nice post Tim, it's looking great.
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