Hello everyone
Since there is no BB code that will break the text up, I'm going to use what there is - lines.
I've searched the forum for secure file deleting software, best file eraser and or shredder and it seems I may be stirring up a hornets nest.
I have heard that there is available to those who know about it, software that can undelete files from damaged hard drives or even erased.
So I put Eraser and CCleaner to the test. Both of them claim to erase free space on a hard drive and the limited information that I have - not being a techie - is that once a file is deleted (Windows) it remains intact but has been flagged or unflagged so that the address can be overwritten with new data.
I downloaded a duplicate file finder and went through all of my family photos and deleted about 1,000 photos. I then downloaded Recuva. I set Eraser to erase free space the on the hard drive at 7. I'm not sure what that means but I believe it to be 7 cycles of random data printed (imprinted?) at each address.
I did the same with CCleaner. I ran both programs once then defragged the hard drive with MyDefrag and then run both programs again. The results were scary. Less than 1 in 100 photos were destroyed and not completely at that. I deleted about 1,000 photos and 10 were completely destroyed as far as I could tell there were lots of other stuff mixed in from as far back as 2 years from what I can remember visiting websites and the really scary thing is that there was stuff that I cannot remember ever looking at or clicking on that was on the hard drive. It makes me wonder if there is not a way to actually inject files and photos that were not front and center but hiding just behind a click. I don't know if there is a question here and I'm not absolutely sure that I didn't bark the whole process; hopefully someone here with experience in this matter might throw some light.
edit: I am at this moment using a program called BC Wipe - the free version, I think I have 21 days to try it out. If anyone is interested, I'll come back with the results.
edit: Just for the record, I am not a nefarious person and I do not believe that I have to answer questions like:
Since there is no BB code that will break the text up, I'm going to use what there is - lines.
I've searched the forum for secure file deleting software, best file eraser and or shredder and it seems I may be stirring up a hornets nest.
I have heard that there is available to those who know about it, software that can undelete files from damaged hard drives or even erased.
So I put Eraser and CCleaner to the test. Both of them claim to erase free space on a hard drive and the limited information that I have - not being a techie - is that once a file is deleted (Windows) it remains intact but has been flagged or unflagged so that the address can be overwritten with new data.
I downloaded a duplicate file finder and went through all of my family photos and deleted about 1,000 photos. I then downloaded Recuva. I set Eraser to erase free space the on the hard drive at 7. I'm not sure what that means but I believe it to be 7 cycles of random data printed (imprinted?) at each address.
I did the same with CCleaner. I ran both programs once then defragged the hard drive with MyDefrag and then run both programs again. The results were scary. Less than 1 in 100 photos were destroyed and not completely at that. I deleted about 1,000 photos and 10 were completely destroyed as far as I could tell there were lots of other stuff mixed in from as far back as 2 years from what I can remember visiting websites and the really scary thing is that there was stuff that I cannot remember ever looking at or clicking on that was on the hard drive. It makes me wonder if there is not a way to actually inject files and photos that were not front and center but hiding just behind a click. I don't know if there is a question here and I'm not absolutely sure that I didn't bark the whole process; hopefully someone here with experience in this matter might throw some light.
edit: I am at this moment using a program called BC Wipe - the free version, I think I have 21 days to try it out. If anyone is interested, I'll come back with the results.
edit: Just for the record, I am not a nefarious person and I do not believe that I have to answer questions like:
But even more than this it's just good house keeping. You shred paper documents don't you?What are you doing that you are so worried about what is on your hard drive?