Alright, i've heard of programs which can do some amazing things with deleted data, but this one just scares me. A coworker was telling me that there is a proggie out there (i think its a Norton/Symantec one) which can go back something like 7 levels and get the data recovered and sypossedly FBI/CIA etc use this. Meaning that after 7 full Reformats the data can still be recovered. I dont see how this is possible, can anyone clarify this for me please? Once data is deleted, its gone (i mean once its out of the recycle bin and temp folders, etc) and a full system reformat should be totaly safe.
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ATTN: Software Experts, can data REALLY be recovered after REFORMAT/ETC... ???
- Thread starter lizium
- Start date
Low level format. Problem solved.
Or a one of thoes big degaussing magnet tools at radio shack.
Or a one of thoes big degaussing magnet tools at radio shack.
just hitting delete does little more than erasing the file's entry in the file table. formatting does little more than resetting the whole file table and checking the whole disk for bad sectors and noting them. the file still is on the hard drive, its just that the operating system doesn't know where it is. a low level format writes 0s to the hard drive and actually does erase everything, but with sophisticated equipment you can read what the previous setting of the bit was. so you write 0s then 1s then 0s then 1s a few times and the info is completely unrecoverable.
Umm, they deal with millions of dollars worth of just information and they don't already have something in place or someone that *knows* what to do? Hmmm...
Are you recycling hard drives? i.e. Do you format, then use that hard drive in another box? Imo, the only way to be truly certain is to completely obliterate the discs themselves.
Bullhonkie
Golden Member
Try DBAN (what I've personally used), Eraser, or any of the other numerous data destroying utilities.
If someone has the means (time/money) they can still probably retrieve some data even after using those types of tools. If the data is really that sensitive, consider destroying the disk platters themselves.
If someone has the means (time/money) they can still probably retrieve some data even after using those types of tools. If the data is really that sensitive, consider destroying the disk platters themselves.
Bestcrypt has a secure delete program, as does symantec, as do many others I'm sure. However, I'm not aware of any commercial programs that will recover data that has been written over (beyond deleted) even once. When you delete something in Windows it just deletes a pointer to the file. The space is then marked as writeable, but, it may not get written over for some time--depending on how much space you have left and how much activity on the drive.
I'm skeptical of any program that would claim the ability to recover written over data entirely. [I've never seen one that claimed that ability]. OTOH-the feds and some data recovery places have the ability to recover data at that point (maybe not 100% but better than 0%)--using special hardware==$$$. It can read at the platter level what was previously recorded up to 7 layers (I think was the theoretical limit).
To foil that, The secure delete programs write over the data with various patterns of numbers, like 01010101 10101010 11111111 00000000 etc and overwrite it in multiple passes. It takes a long time to delete your stuff that way... but it's pretty much gone at that point.
I'm skeptical of any program that would claim the ability to recover written over data entirely. [I've never seen one that claimed that ability]. OTOH-the feds and some data recovery places have the ability to recover data at that point (maybe not 100% but better than 0%)--using special hardware==$$$. It can read at the platter level what was previously recorded up to 7 layers (I think was the theoretical limit).
To foil that, The secure delete programs write over the data with various patterns of numbers, like 01010101 10101010 11111111 00000000 etc and overwrite it in multiple passes. It takes a long time to delete your stuff that way... but it's pretty much gone at that point.
i remember norton utils having a secure erase or something like that.. but haven't used their suite in a while, so i dun remember the acutal name, sorry
anyway, what the program does is write teh hd multiple times, think the govt standard for non0recover is like 10 rewrites? can't remember, but anyway, the prog goes and writes all 0s the first pass, then all ones the second pass, and so on for 10 passes.
this way the residual data has been rewritten multiple times in non coherrent 0s and 1s, recovery becomes pretty much impossible.
anyway, what the program does is write teh hd multiple times, think the govt standard for non0recover is like 10 rewrites? can't remember, but anyway, the prog goes and writes all 0s the first pass, then all ones the second pass, and so on for 10 passes.
this way the residual data has been rewritten multiple times in non coherrent 0s and 1s, recovery becomes pretty much impossible.
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