Free PC Cleaners
Want to give our grandson old laptop & would like to clean the hard drive & delete files,What would be the best way to go about it?Thanks
Forum Discussion
I encrypt all data (main reason for this is that breakins are common, so might as well not let a thief have your data to extort/blackmail you by when they take your disks), so in theory, a simple format command will zero out the volume encryption key sections and ensure that the data is completely unrecoverable. Sensitive data goes on a Truecrypt volume with keyfiles stored on a USB flash drive. No keyfile, no data, period.
If I want to hand a machine over, I use DBAN (Derik's Boot & Nuke), which is a burnable ISO. I boot the machine with it, select "autonuke", and let the utility wipe all the drives on the box. If really worried, I use the "Guttman" wipe and let that run for a few days.
Of course, things are different with SSDs made within the past couple years. Delete files, and the TRIM utility will completely zero the deleted stuff out. No way to use a recovery utility like Recuva when TRIM does its job.
If someone is able to get data from a multi-pass DBAN wipe, and is able to decrypt it (I use BitLocker on Windows, LUKS on Linux, FileVault 2 on the Mac, and TrueCrypt on all platforms), the person deserves to have the recovered data.
If I want to hand a machine over, I use DBAN (Derik's Boot & Nuke), which is a burnable ISO. I boot the machine with it, select "autonuke", and let the utility wipe all the drives on the box. If really worried, I use the "Guttman" wipe and let that run for a few days.
Of course, things are different with SSDs made within the past couple years. Delete files, and the TRIM utility will completely zero the deleted stuff out. No way to use a recovery utility like Recuva when TRIM does its job.
If someone is able to get data from a multi-pass DBAN wipe, and is able to decrypt it (I use BitLocker on Windows, LUKS on Linux, FileVault 2 on the Mac, and TrueCrypt on all platforms), the person deserves to have the recovered data.
