“I want to sell my old HD but my friend told me not to do as any nosy purchaser can get into disk with recovery software.”
What happens when we delete files from our computer using the Shift+Delete command ?? Most of us think that the file is completely removed. But in actual case it is not. So what happens then ?? The files are allocated a space of memory in the physical hard drive every time we move it there.
And when we perform the most common permanent deletion that very allocated space is freed & gets ready for saving another file there. The deleted file remains recoverable until something else new file replaces it. So how to permanently delete a file which makes it UN-recoverable.
Here what you will do
1. Format the drive. Which is obviously the first & best choice.
2. Or replace the old files with random data which can be achieved by using certain(or most) data wiping software.
Here some most useful free software’s.
Download Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) here. Two different versions (one for PCs and newer Macs, and the other for older Macs) allow DBAN to work on nearly every computer made within the last ten years.
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Eraser is a free & open source software that works with almost all Windows Operating Systems including DOS. You can delete a file or folder or simply a complete drive using this software.
This is for techies so if you don’t get it ignore it simply..
- The Guttman Method : This theory is based upon Peter Guttman theory “Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory“. This is the most secured file deletion process. The data deleted using this concept is overwritten 35 times using carefully selected patterns. But like all other most effective ways, this is also very time-consuming.
- US DoD 5220-22.M : This concept is based on the United States Department of Defense recommendation 5220-22.M. Like the Guttman concept it also overwrites the data but in this case the data is overwritten 7 times only. Well this is secured but not as much as the earlier one. But this is time saving other hand.
(remember this is file or drive level software)
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Active Disk Wiper FREE version, Powerful and compact software that allows you to destroy all data on hard disks, USB drives and floppy disks completely, excluding any possibility of future recovery of deleted files and folders.
It’s a hard drive and partition eraser utility.
Hope this will work rather you want Ultimate satisfaction. Then take a 5″ hammer, place HD on floor hit as hard as base ball. Then throw it to tamez river. 🙂
Apart from hardy joke these three method can do something better or you can use combination of them.
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