Wipe ffee space

Hi guys,

Whats a good program that wipes freespace?


Edit: doh! Ignore the extra f in the title

A quick google search would have given you plenty of options:

http://www.shredagent.com/solutions/...disk-space.htm
http://www.active-disk-wiper.com/wipe.htm
http://www.zdelete.com/

EDIT: Bugger the gimp beat me to it!

Have you used any?

format.com

Thanks, will have a look when i get home.

remember the only way to really remove some data is to delete it and then write over the same part of your HDD again and then delete that. simply deleting or formatting or deleting and then formatting will not remove it, it is simply ignored. there are programs that can retrieve data from the free space.

why do you want to you been downloading pornography?

what prog

i have old files that i deleted that i want back

not telling you, but there is many. I have one that is supposed to be able to get data that has been formatted over 10 or so times.Which can come in handy

cheers

ERD Commander is a good one, if you can find a working torrent.

However if you deleted them some time ago, and you have been switching your PC off and on since then, the chances are that the files will be unrecoverable as they may have been over written

there are dozens of data recovery software products, even free ones. use google.

the scary thing is you need to write over them more than once to make it impossible to recover them. i dont understand how that is possible when you consider how a hard drive works, but i've seen it with my own eyes.

Oh dont worry, I know that, but generally although they can be recovered, if they have been over written all you will get is fragments back!

For instance if you delete an MP3, and then use your PC for a few weeks switching it off and on, chances are you could get some of the file back, but it wont play properly if at all.

The same goes for documents, you might be able to get it back but the chances are that alot of it will be gobbledegook, with random characters over the page. However often this is sometimes enough so you can get some of the txt off it.

Whats even scarier is that with the correct software you can recover documents that have been printed from your PC! I didnt even know Windows held onto file images that have been printed until i went on a forensics course!

This is why my organisation are employing a company to completely shred hard disks when we are finished with them rather than us just securely deleting the contents or degaussing them!

Yes the more times its been written over the more corrupt the recovered file becomes. Also turning your PC off and on has absoultly no effect on deleted file recovery.

MOD dispose of theirs by putting platters in Acid bath long with Cache memory. Empty metal case is then recylcled.