That mantra isn’t what you normally want to hear about your hard drive. But what about your old hard drive? Do you want your old tax return or that photo of you mooning the opposing football team available for the world to see? Most of us blithely assume that deleting files actually deletes them. Wrong!
Deleting files merely drops the name from the index and the info is there until it is overwritten. Oh, then if I use a software package designed to overwrite all my files then my data is truly erased. Maybe! Why maybe? Commercial software such as Stellar Wipe, Master Shredder, Crisystec Sentry.30, DiskDeleter, Secure Folders XP or PowerWiper may successfully delete your data. Then other commercially available software such as NTFS Formatted Partition Data Recovery, Deleted Windows Partition Data Restore or R-Studio Data Recovery Software may be able to recover it.
It seems like for every tool there is a counter tool. I have used Drive Savers Data Recovery services on hard drives I was sure were toast and they got the data back. I am convinced that if you want to absolutely, positively insure your data on your old hard drive is secure is to destroy it. I mean, physically destroy it. Drill a couple of ½” holes through the platters. Pull the platters out of the drive and cut them in half. Take your drive to a hard drive destroyer service where they provide you with a certificate of destruction. If your data is personal, you probably want to keep it personal, if your data is business; your continued success is dependent on keeping your data secure. Don’t assume your data is safe when you replace computers, insure it is safe by destroying the drive.
Deleting files merely drops the name from the index and the info is there until it is overwritten. Oh, then if I use a software package designed to overwrite all my files then my data is truly erased. Maybe! Why maybe? Commercial software such as Stellar Wipe, Master Shredder, Crisystec Sentry.30, DiskDeleter, Secure Folders XP or PowerWiper may successfully delete your data. Then other commercially available software such as NTFS Formatted Partition Data Recovery, Deleted Windows Partition Data Restore or R-Studio Data Recovery Software may be able to recover it.
It seems like for every tool there is a counter tool. I have used Drive Savers Data Recovery services on hard drives I was sure were toast and they got the data back. I am convinced that if you want to absolutely, positively insure your data on your old hard drive is secure is to destroy it. I mean, physically destroy it. Drill a couple of ½” holes through the platters. Pull the platters out of the drive and cut them in half. Take your drive to a hard drive destroyer service where they provide you with a certificate of destruction. If your data is personal, you probably want to keep it personal, if your data is business; your continued success is dependent on keeping your data secure. Don’t assume your data is safe when you replace computers, insure it is safe by destroying the drive.
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