Securely Erase Your Hard Drive Before You Get Rid of it.
December 6th, 2008When you delete a file in windows the file is moved to the recycle bin, but did you know that even after emptying the recycle bin the file still exists? Whether you’re giving your old computer to a family member, donating it to a charity or just tossing it out in the trash, you must securely erase the hard drive to protect your data!
When you delete a file you’re simply telling the operating system (i.e. Windows) the file is no longer needed and it’s OK to overwrite the storage space it once took up. If the the actual space on the hard drive has not yet been overwritten with new data the information still exists and is recoverable, even though you can’t see it. In some cases even overwritten the space still leaves some of the data recoverable.
The only way to be sure your personal data is completely safe is to use a tool that will securely erase your drive buy writing over it with multiple passes of random data. The good news is there are plenty of good free tools to handle this, below are two of the most popular.
A program like eraser can securely erase an entire hard drive or specific files and folders of drives your still using. Eraser can also be used to overwrite “white space” of active drives. This means you can use it to securely erase all free space on your hard drive and ensure data from previously deleted files is no longer recoverable.
Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN) is another excellent program when you need to securely erase an entire hard drive. You simply add the tool to a CD, USB stick, DVD or floppy drive and then boot your computer with the device connected. During the boot process your computer will find the tool and ask you to choose which drives you want to wipe. Select the drive or partition you want to erase and off it goes.
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