Removing Deleted files?

sra

I know there are plenty of shredder programs out there.
And I know there are plenty of programs to wipe a hard drive

But does anyone know of any programs that will wipe files that have already been deleted? - so that they cannot be found by a recovery program - while not interfering with any current files

preferably free

thanks in advance.

Mr_Skint_2

Webroots Window Washer any files that have gone in the reycle bin or
a path to destroyed can be bleached upto 100 times.

Number_6_3

You can get a free trial http://www.webroot.com/consumer/downloads/ also spysweeper is worth grabbing whilst your there.

HTH

R

sra

I'm okay for deleting files securely. I'm looking for something that can remove stuff that was deleted a long time ago.

Eg progs like restoration can find and recover files I deleted ages ago.

HairyHatMan

eraser wil overwrite freespace 35 times. That should do it.


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

shopbot

sra wrote:

I'm okay for deleting files securely. I'm looking for something that can remove stuff that was deleted a long time ago.

Eg progs like restoration can find and recover files I deleted ages ago.

On the restoration link you gave the description says "[font=Verdana,tahoma]it also provides the option to wipe the found files beyond simple recovery".

Does that function not erase the old files securely enough?


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sra

shopbot wrote:

On the restoration link you gave the description says "[font=Verdana,tahoma]it also provides the option to wipe the found files beyond simple recovery".

Does that function not erase the old files securely enough?


[/font]

I never even noticed that!

You can see why I missed it:
http://www.snapfiles.com/screenshots/restoration.htm

'Others' is a drop-menu

thanks everyone

squeaky

PGP - Pretty Good Privacy, wipes all free space on a drive and over-writes as many times as you want. They guarantee (pretty much) placing a file beyond recovery by ANY agency.

Just google for them.

2ax

It seems to me it would certainly be quicker to undelete everything then secure shred it, rather than to overwrite the whole empty space on the disk.

I have Eraser and a trial copy of Tune-Up Utilities,; I'm not going to do any calculation, but I reckon to do the whole disk with 35 passes would take a day or two, and that isn't a very large one.

sra

2ax wrote:

It seems to me it would certainly be quicker to undelete everything then secure shred it, rather than to overwrite the whole empty space on the disk.

A lot of Restore programs don't let you undelete. Restoration has a 'Restore by copying' so the original is still there.

there may be more options but I can't examine it yet as its already 70% through overwriting my delted files (Don't need to overwrite these particualr ones 35 times - my plans for world domination are on another computer )

matty_c608

Try Evidence Eliminator. Quote:

"This masterpiece has defeated forensic software using DoD 5220.22-M standard data wiping, matching the U.S. Department of Defense recommendations"

Costs $99, use the 30 day trial though!

Still it's not perfect. the index file of the drive cannot be removed, and so there is a record of every file thats been on the drive.

The best way to clear your drive is to smash it into pieces with a hammer, and melt it LOL