Destroying Data on Your Hard Drive

 

**This information is provided for your convenience.  This information is excerpted from the EPA publication Do the PC Thing for Consumers.

 

 

If you decide to clean your computer yourself, you can pur­chase software via the following commercial sites, or obtain them for free at shareware sites:

 

Commercial Windows Disk Cleaning Software

• Blancco Data Cleaner www.blancco.com

• WipeDrive www.accessdata.com/products/wipe

• CyberCide Data Destruction www.cyberscrub.com/products/cybercide/index.php

• DataEraser www.ontrack.com/dataeraser

• DiskEraser www.comtechnologies.com

• Clean Disk Security www.diskcleaners.com/clndisk.html

• DriveScrubber www.batchconverter.com/DriveScrubber-download-13267.shtml

• East-Tec Sanitizer www.east-tec.com/disposesecure

• Stellar Disk Wipe www.stellarinfo.com/file-eraser.htm

• Paragon Disk Wiper www.disk-wiper.net

• Pinion Sanitizer www.infraworks.com/sanitizer.php

• UniShred Pro www.lat.com/Our_Products.html

• Wipedrive www.whitecanyon.com

• Wipe Info feature in Norton Utilities and System Works www.symantec.com

 

Freeware Windows Disk Cleaning Software (the following are available at www.shareware.com)

• Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser www.killdisk.com/eraser.htm 

• Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) www.dban.sourceforge.net 

• BCWipe www.download.com/BCWipe/3000-2092_4-10009333.html

 

Macintosh Disk Cleaning Software

• ShredIt www.mireth.com/pub/sxme.html

• SuperScrubber www.superscrubber.com

• Wipe Info feature in Norton Utilities (using this, you can delete single documents and files) www.symantec.com

 

 

Is Data Really Gone?

Deleting something from your computer or e-mail is similar to removing a card from the library’s card catalog but not removing the book from the shelf—the information is still in the library if you look for it. In the case of a computer hard drive, the file’s location information is removed from the drive’s index, but not from its place on the drive, so the file can easily be recovered by someone using sophisticated data recovery software.

 

 

Leaving Data Cleansing to the Pros

If you would rather leave the data cleansing to a professional, ask your refurbisher if they have a process to cleanse data from computers. Many of these companies use reputable disk cleaning software following U.S. Department of Defense guidelines. This software systematically overwrites all data and then verifies that this was done. Make sure that you have a good understanding of how the company will be addressing your concerns about data security if you will not be address­ing this issue yourself. You may even want to go so far as to ask your refurbisher for a written statement indicating the specific method the company will use to cleanse the data from your computer.

 

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