What Nasty Stuff Lurks on Your Old Hard Drive ?
A study by two MIT students revealed that the failure to correctly erase old hard drives can create serious security problems.
You can read a news story at
ZDnet.com
Just putting files in the trash does not erase them! For security you must use a program that writes new, randomly generated, data over the old files.
Autoclave
This free program from the University of Washington is no longer supported. See the next entry for an alternative.
If you still want information on Autoclave, here is the link.
Autoclave
Darik's Boot and Nuke
This is a well reguarded free open source program. It completely erases and over-writes a hard drive. You put it on a floppy disk, or a CD, and run it. This completely wipes the hard drive, including the operating system. (The computer will not start in the normal way after you do this.) Be sure that you scroll down and read the documentation before you do anything else.
Note: all disk deletion programs take a long time (many hours) to run
Darik's Boot and Nuke
Eraser
The program above is for completely erasing your machine, but good practice includes being sure that the individual files which you delete are really gone for good.
This free program selectively erases and writes over files. You can use it while you work. It will also clean all of the "empty" space on a disk.
Eraser (www.heidi.ie/eraser/)
Eraser is easier to use than DBAN and should take care of most files. It will not get system files, which might include file names and internet sites visited. The following may seem complicated, but that is just because I am trying to give you every step.
To use it;
- Download and install the software (follow instructions with the download.)
- Restart your computer.
For Every Day Use
- Throw away what you want to delete (put it in the Recycle Bin.)
- Right click the Recycle Bin
- Select the menu item Erase Recycle Bin
- Confirm Erasing of Recycle Bin appears
The first time you use the program do the following three steps
- Select Options
- Click on the last option "Pseudorandom" (1 passes)and select both checkable options below
Note: This option gives you the least security but the fastest operation. If you are truly paranoid (or have "techie" enemies,) choose a higher level.
- Click OK
- In Confirm Erasing of Recycle Bin click Yes
(or click no if you are willing to believe that the erase happened)
For Old Files, and Those Deleted From Within Some Programs:
- Find Eraser in your Programs list and open it
- The first time you run the program
- In the Edit menu, select Preferences and then General
- Be sure the box "Enable clearing of paging file (swap) at shutdown" is checked
- Click OK
- In the Edit menu, select Preferences and then Erasing
- At the top of the window click on the Unused Disk Space tab
- Be sure all three boxes below "Overwrite" are checked.
- Click OK
- Click the On-Demand box on the left of the screen
- In the File menu select New Task
- Pick Unused space on drive and select Local Hard Drives from the drop down menu
- Click OK, Local Hard Drives should now appear on the top line
- In the Task Menu select Run All and then click Yes
This can take a long time so I usually run it overnight.
Do you run a business?
You might want to see:
The computer disposal policy of the University of Washington
or
The policy of the Department of Defense
or try search on "computer disposal policy"