Wiping Software

[r6640am]

Can these programs do any harm to my computer? Downside of using them? Program suggestions?

[tubago]

As far as i know they dont harm the computer. One of the disavantages of using them is that you cannot recover the data by any way and they take longer than the normal erease. The programs i use are the one that comes with TuneUp Utilities and the one that comes with Norton System Works!

But if you need a free one, try this one:
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php

[bigH2O]

As far as i know they dont harm the computer. One of the disavantages of using them is that you cannot recover the data by any way This is not exactly true. It doesn't matter how many times a disk has been erased, wiped, formatted, overwritten, etc., there are always latent traces of the old files that can be recovered if you are willing to throw enough money and forensic technology at the problem. About the only way to absolutely ensure data can never possibly be recovered is the physical destruction of the media itself (melting down the platters for example). Take a look at this white paper (http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/sec96/full_papers/gutmann/) if you want some details on what I'm talking about.

The programs i use are the one that comes with TuneUp Utilities and the one that comes with Norton System Works!

But if you need a free one, try this one:
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php

Well, considering that this was in the Linux OS forum, I assume he's looking for a linux utility. Here (http://www.icewalkers.com/Linux/Software/517500/East-Tec-DiskSanitizer-for-Linux.html) is one that will completely wipe the hard drive, and here (http://www.softchecker.com/Catalogue/Utilities/Drivers/WipeDrive-Professional.html) is one for wiping specific files that will run on linux.

[tubago]

ah sorry!
lol

[Zero Tolerance]

I work as a sysadmin in the healthcare field. When we have hard drives die..it is our policy(written by me) that said drive is to be manually dismantled and the platters be destroyed.(Wrapping the platters ina towel and a 2lb ball ping hammer will shatter them good! :D)

This is the only way we can rest assured that the data is unrecoverable.

[bigH2O]

HDD platters make great targets for handgun practice too. The little hole in the middle is perfect for hanging the thing on a branch of a shrub :). You can definitely tell when you hit the target. The thing shatters into a couple of million pieces.