Secure deletion of data. This can be a difficult problem as multiple copies of the data may exist: caches, older versions, backups, etc.
For the destruction of storage media (which as a side effect disposes of the data stored on it, but only if no other copies exist), see the tag destruction.
After decades of hearing that "delete" does not really make the data impossible to recover, I have to ask WHY the OS was not corrected long ago to do what it should have been doing all along? What is the big deal? Can't the system just trundle along…
I have only a basic understanding of how files are written in a hard disk. Here I assume the files are overwritten this way.
File A is deleted
Its address is removed and showed vacant
New File B is overwritten above the space of File A
I am…
Is it possible to recovery data from SSD, that was secure erased (https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase), by IT or professional data recovery company?
Does this type of erasing reduce liftime of SSD?
There are already several posts here discussing the specificities of magnetic hard disks and SSD and how to properly wipe their content:
With magnetic disk a complete overwrite of the disk content is the way to go, even like several over-writing…
I want to use a laptop which doesn’t save any data, history, passwords anywhere in it. All state information should be destroyed once it is turned off or rebooted, without removing my ability to use the OS or specific applications such as Explorer…
Edit: this is not about how to securely erase, but how to check whether the erase was secure enough.
I have over written my SSD with very large video files, in order to overwrite any sensitive data I may have had, before selling the SSD.
I use the…
On a drive I have a folder of files, I then just soft delete these files (not wiping them or overwriting with any data). After I soft delete them I encrypt the drive and wipe it with a single quick format or regular format.
If I have no limit for…
It's been established that, thanks to our good friend Mr. Wear Leveler, wiping data from an SSD is very difficult. I understand that the one thing you don't want to do is actually attempt to shred files or zero out the drive.
However, what if I…
I’ve recently got into a little trouble and need advice. It seems I may have inadvertently downloaded a illegal file from a p2p network (along with 100’s of other legal files). I was certainly not aware of this nor have I viewed anything like this…
I'm leaving my company soon.
Only one person in the whole company has admin-rights on client machines and does the reinstalls. To save time only the old userprofile gets deactivated and a new one generated.
This leads to data lying around rather…
In terms of data deletion everyone knows that once you delete something from your harddisk it stays there, and is recoverable, until it is overwritten.
With classical spinning harddrives, the best solution was to overwrite the entire drive, several…
I have a desktop from ~2009 and a laptop from 2014 (Samsung NP700Z7C) that I'd like to give away so people can reuse parts if they wish to.
However, I don't want to take any risks regarding personal data (both were my personal PCs, with all my life…
I've been experimenting with the latest Parted Magic Secure Erase to wipe HDDs and SSDs. After the Secure Erase completes, I noticed in the logs that the verification level is 10%. Excerpt from the log:
WDC_WD5000AZLX-00JKKA0 (/dev/sda) SERIAL…
ORIGINAL QUESTION:
We have servers which we want to wipe and sell due to an environmentally friendly scheme, recycling, reducing carbon footprint etc. The servers have a raid configuration.
After doing some research, I am thinking of doing the…
Often when I see people talking about safe deletion, I see lots of advice's that you should use random values to overwrite. My question is why is it better or more efficient than filling all bytes with 0xFF that put all bits on?
