[Alex Ethridge]

I am going to explain this so as to stress the importance of the project.

I recently participated in a criminal investigation, in which evidence of criminal activity was stored on my hard disk for backup. The investigation is complete and I now need to do a secure erase of all the free space on the partition where the evidence currently resides. And it needs to be done in a way that it can never be recovered.

I know how to do a DOD erase of a hard disk; but, the only methoid I know requires that I erase the entire storage device. I am willing to do that if it is absolutely necessary; but, I would rather not have to. Since all backups are further redundantly backed up all other systems (automatedly, every day at 4:00 AM), I would have to do this to four 160-Gig hard disks.

Is there a way to do a secure erase of just the free space, an erase that is just as secure as the DOD erase?

Also, what free tools are there out there?

I've found a lot of stuff out there that will do a secure erase of an entire disk; but, I haven't found anything for secure-erasing just free space and slack space.

[dr20]

Eraser will wipe free space only if that's what you want it to do:

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

[KMW]

try these guys, necrofile, freeware

NecroFile [Public Release 0.86.0603]




Site: http://www.necrocosm.com




----------------------------------Introduction----------

NECRO- : The state of being deceased.
-FILE : A collection of data (as text or
a program) treated by a computer as a unit for
purposes of input and output.


NecroFile is a program designed to clean any
hard disk, directory, or file of deleted data. Little do
most of us realize, when a file is deleted and removed
from the recycle bin, it is not being removed
at all... rather, it is simply being removed from
view. The data is still on the hard disk,
vulnerable to many outside factors. Run NecroFile to
clean all of your drives and prevent the worst
possibilities from becoming realities.

[sin987]

norton ghost

[slickoe]

perhaps KGB (secure delete feature)

[Deathscythe_Hell]

TweakXP has a secure delete feature as well. While it isn't strong enough to keep out hte FBI's data recovery(which can recover after like 20 rewrites can't it?), it CAN do secure deletions.

[Squashman]

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/ultrawipe.html

[Blue2]

Originally Posted by Alex Ethridge

I am going to explain this so as to stress the importance of the project. I recently participated in a criminal investigation,
Is there a way to do a secure erase of just the free space, an erase that is just as secure as the DOD erase? Also, what free tools are there out there?
I've found a lot of stuff out there that will do a secure erase of an entire disk; but, I haven't found anything for secure-erasing just free space and slack space.

============================
I find it pretty ludicrous that a DOD employee would be asking this question of the Public when the DOD spends Billions on SECURITY. Good-ole-boy TOM must have forgotten your office.

Any way, sorry for the attitude in the way my tax dollars are being spent and here is at least ONE helpful hint!!

Don't settle with just ONE, or even TWO wipes of your free space. And, IF you really want it gone, get an application that will read in dummy data (one's and zero's) several times and then wipe that area several time beyond that. Even then, gulp, there are guys in the DOD that MAY be able to extract the data you thought was GONE!

jasper

[techboy73]

Try BC Wipe gives you many options

www.jetico.co

[Alex Ethridge]

Blue2,

sorry for the attitude in the way my tax dollars are being spent

Jumping to conclusions without considering facts can make you look quite silly.

I would like for you to put in another quote: Find the portion of one of my posts that indicates I am a DOD employee and quote that for me in your next post.

To all others:
Thanks for your suggestions.

I got a program called BCWipe. I used it on two systems and it workd out fine. On the third system it was totally wiped out the dext day when I checked to see how it did.

I started BCWipe on all three systems at about the same time. I set it to wipe the free space on all. Since I knew this would take quite some time, I went to bed. I got up the next morning to find two were in perfect condition and one was at the middle of a POST screen. The partition table was totally scrambled.

History on crashed drive:
This was a new, Seagate, 160-Gig drive set up just a few weeks back; but, it has never been set up from scratch. It was imaged from another drive the first time and then again from an image after a crash. Having had this drive crash twice, I suspect the imaging could be a contributing factor. I decided to set up the partitions and load the software from scratch this time.

I just finished the setup. It took about ten hours.

I really don't know if BCWipe is to blame. Other possibilities are some problem with this board recognizing the 160-Gig drive or that the drive, itself, could be slightly defective.

I did a data recovery on all three drives and none of the evidence in the criminal case came up. That, at least, was accomplished on all drives. As a point of interest, the programs and operating system on the crashed drive were all recoverable; but, the case evidence was not. So, I don't think I made a wrong setting in BCWipe.