Good software to recover files from a HDD?

BaileyB

I'm selling a PC so i have used a peice of software called ERASER to wipe my HDD. I'm now looking for free software that will attempt to recover files from my HDD.

I just want to know if Eraser and says what it says it can do.

anyone know of any good software?

wakandem

if the data is that important then get a hammer to the hdd & get a cheap new one to sell the pc. If not I wouldn't worry too much, just format and reinstall original operating system

John_Gray

If you're that worried about what manner of naughtiness or secret data someone could possibly find on your old hard disk with quite a lot of effort, just remove and keep the old hard disk, and tell the next owner of the PC that new hard disks are quite cheap...

John

GoofyGAT

Eraser is pefectly OK for the homeuser.

From the FAQs:

I have been using Eraser to overwrite all sensitive data from my drive. Is it really gone now?
It depends on how much money and effort people trying to restore your data are willing to use. Erased data cannot be recovered with any software utility, and even if the hard drive electronics are bypassed and disk platters are examined, recovering data will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. You may want to read more about the common security problems from the help file though.

Perhaps someone on their forum can confirm that it's OK too.

If you're still concerned, do what wakandem/John Gray suggests. G

ormus

undo delete is a shareware prog that can recover files after a quick format.
google it.
there are other pro programs, but mostly expensive software.
as been said if u want to be really sure, then smash the hdd.

also try the free, ultimate boot disk. it has a few secure format progs. some of them are very effective but beware, they take a very long time to clean a disk. hrs and hrs. they reckon even the FBI/CIA cant recover data after you use one of these.

GoofyGAT

ormus wrote: »

undo delete is a shareware prog that can recover files after a quick format.....

Don't mistake Eraser for a 'quick format'!

ormus wrote: »

also try the free, ultimate boot disk. it has a few secure format progs. some of them are very effective but beware, they take a very long time to clean a disk. hrs and hrs. they reckon even the FBI/CIA cant recover data after you use one of these.

Eraser is similar. G

Blacksheep1979

dban is good or if you can be bothered get a random linux live cd and once booted open a command prompt and type

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda

if its a sata drive or

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda

if its an ide drive - will take a few hours, run more than once if really paranoid. If you're really really paranoid change the /dev/urandom to /dev/random but will probably take weeks.

ormus

GoofyGAT wrote: »

Don't mistake Eraser for a 'quick format'!

Eraser is similar. G

i wasnt. just stating what the undo delete prog could do.

no idea how long eraser takes, (never used it) but if is not very long then i would be a trifle worried.

BaileyB

I'm not that worried but did have personal infomation on it. So wary about that.

I used a free software from pcworld.com and all it could find was dell stuff and stuff going back to 1980?? Which is a little strange

spotdog

Sorry for reply an old thread. If the file were over-written several times with data eraser sosftware, it is hard to recover again. But if you just delete or format a partition, it is easy to recover files.
There are many data recovery software, but no free recovery software to fix this problem, luckly, I found a $69 software for beta (free) with full functions, worth trying, I have used it, hope it helps you, too.
easeus-software.com/drw-beta/

SOSAGES

i personally use "get data back"
works a treat and often finds things i had no idea i deleted.