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Erasing the hard drive
- Thread starter DBW78
- Start date
OK Einstein, what's your suggestion based on the information provided?Razon said:no dont try that.. thats a stupid app.
erase
The great thing about this is that once installed, it's available on your context menu (right click), it's free, and what you erase is totally, irrecoverably, gone! (at least short of electron microscope work).
orkut said:
The great thing about this is that once installed, it's available on your context menu (right click), it's free, and what you erase is totally, irrecoverably, gone! (at least short of electron microscope work).
C Cleaner is good for erasing info if you go into OPTIONS -- SETTINGS and then change the erasing to Secure Guttman 35 passes. It is the most secure erasing on a simple program.
This however isn't good enough to cover everything. I use a program called RECUVA. I use the program to retrieve any files that are recoverable. When done i ask the program to delete them. All recoverable files are then deleted however parts of the files can be retrieved. The info is usually unusable but portions of the file can have the name of some site you may have visited.
I then use another program called ERASER. I tell it to erase all files that are in the unused disk space on my drive. Takes about 1 hour (80GB).
Use RECUVA again to retrieve any files and the result is ZERO or a scant few system files that reveal nothing.
Must also clear some logs, temp files, history, some firewalls keep a history of your travels. Browser info etc.
Its a bit of work. When someone hires me to "clean up" their machine it usually takes about 4 hours. Cheaper to buy a new HD and do a fresh install. LOL
Understand though that any professional can recover almost anything on a disk regardless of what you do. This will only deter the non pros from getting anything.
Hope this helps a little.
This however isn't good enough to cover everything. I use a program called RECUVA. I use the program to retrieve any files that are recoverable. When done i ask the program to delete them. All recoverable files are then deleted however parts of the files can be retrieved. The info is usually unusable but portions of the file can have the name of some site you may have visited.
I then use another program called ERASER. I tell it to erase all files that are in the unused disk space on my drive. Takes about 1 hour (80GB).
Use RECUVA again to retrieve any files and the result is ZERO or a scant few system files that reveal nothing.
Must also clear some logs, temp files, history, some firewalls keep a history of your travels. Browser info etc.
Its a bit of work. When someone hires me to "clean up" their machine it usually takes about 4 hours. Cheaper to buy a new HD and do a fresh install. LOL
Understand though that any professional can recover almost anything on a disk regardless of what you do. This will only deter the non pros from getting anything.
Hope this helps a little.
poonhunter said:You can do it via your registry.
Could you clarify "what" you want to erase? If it's files you can go thru your "regedit" (registry edit)
If you want to erase your browsing tracks there's a free program "index dat analyzer" that will do that you just enter your parameters.
Sorry i got reminded to add the link my bad
http://www.systenance.com/indexdat.php
Unless you know exactly what you are doing, never touch the registry. If you are foolish enough to do it, at least back it up first.
When you log out of TERB and the cookies are cleared, it's my opinion that that's still recoverable, pretty easily.
But if TERB were to give you the option of cleaning the cookies by yourself, then you could do a proper job.
But if TERB were to give you the option of cleaning the cookies by yourself, then you could do a proper job.
orkut said:When you log out of TERB and the cookies are cleared, it's my opinion that that's still recoverable, pretty easily.
But if TERB were to give you the option of cleaning the cookies by yourself, then you could do a proper job.
Even if Terb cleared your cookies and then you decided to double up and clean them for yourself with CCleaner or some other utility, there would still be a record of being on terb. It may not be in the form of a cookie or temp file, but it will be there. Any simple free recovery program from the net would be able to retrieve at least the info that you were on Terb.
DBW78 said:I'm trying to clean up all the porn sites that I like to visit. I need something that I can erase all of the sites completly.
Porn sites are very tricky to work with as depending on where you go many will try to auto install programs without your knowledge, install spyware and so on ...
My recommendation is to do the following. Fellow techno TERB mysters can feel free to add/tear up my suggestion.
- Create a seperate windows account which is a guest or does not have admin priviledges
- Make a backup of your cookies before you visit any of the lovely sites you want to view
- Install CC Cleaner and set it to wipe out temp files as well as cookies
- If you save any porn files, get a seperate small USB drive or a portable HD to store them. These drives are very cheap nowadays and if you consider the amount paid at work per hour and apply to the time you would spend cleaning your hard drive, the drive will pay for itself in no time.
- Turn on Pop up blocker to prevent random annoying pop ups showing up which are common with adult web sites
If you use the seperate windows login, you will be able to visit your sites and not worry about spyware or seperate apps getting installed on your PC as your account will not have priviledges for that to happen. Once you finish visiting your sites, run CC Cleaner to wipe out Cookies and temp files then restore back your cookies from the backup you have. Any files you manually save, put them to the USB drive and then unplug it or format after you finish your viewing.
Once you reboot your PC, you can use your regular login and should not have to worry about any files being on your PC as files you save will be on your portable or worst in a seperate My Documents only accessable by someone that knows about this account. CC Cleaner will take care of cleaning any other files randomly created by sites you visit.
