Hard drive destruction 'crucial' (BBC)

[struggle4progress]

... Computing magazine Which? recovered 22,000 "deleted" files from eight computers purchased on eBay.

Criminals source old computers from internet auction sites or in rubbish tips, to find users' valuable details.

Freely available software can be used to recover files that users think they have permanently deleted.

The only solution, according to Which?, is complete destruction - and it recommends using a hammer ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7816446.stm

[undeterred]

1. On my current project we are using "wipedisk" to get rid of data

on corporate computers that contain health information. It goes through the hard drive 5 times. If wipedisk meets HIPAA standards, that's good enough for me

[struggle4progress]

2. If the data is randomly overwritten enough times, it's hard to imagine how

anyone could recover it

On the other hand, if some predictable overwriting is merely repeated a few times, it seems plausible that the attenuated original magnetic trace might sometimes be recoverable, if one knows how it was overwritten, especially if one uses the checkbits

[hobbit709]

3. Deleting files does not remove them

They're still there until overwritten. The problem is that most people think deleting is the same as wiping. When I have a used computer that I'm going to sell, I first wipe it clean with a standard format, then I remove all partitions and repartition it, format it again and reinstall the OS. Of course there isn't usually anything critical on it to start with. If I really want to get rid of anything on it then I run Acronis Drive Cleanser.