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In reply to the discussion: Why do you think Adam Lanza destroyed his computer? [View all]EOTE
(13,409 posts)44. Reformatting is NOT useless, especially if it's a low level format.
Think of it this way. A hard drive's capacity to store information is finite. If you put enough new, random information on a hard drive, there will no longer be any room for any of the previous data stored there. That's basically what a low level format does. A standard format, which just rewrites the FAT (file allocation table) is pretty much useless for deleting data. But whenever I hear that hard drives must be destroyed to get rid of the data, I wonder which laws of physics the hard drives are violating.
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We have those screwdrivers too. Someone gave me a nice kit of specialty screwdrivers one Christmas.
FSogol
Dec 2012
#29
Ashamed of what was left on a computer? BUT he shot his mother in the face 4 times,
ywcachieve
Dec 2012
#63
Other news sites makes it sound more crude, like he just took a hammer to the tower
ck4829
Dec 2012
#10
That's what I'm talking about, the direct approach, don't leave it to someone else.
bemildred
Dec 2012
#74
I read somewhere that he was part of a LAN club, where members got together with their computers
JaneyVee
Dec 2012
#5
I've always been told to only way to really be sure no one has access to your private data from a HD
Lone_Star_Dem
Dec 2012
#20
With a tool such as CCleaner you can actually wipe your hard drive pretty clean.
redgreenandblue
Dec 2012
#81
He'd been to the gun range quite a bit, that's the sort of thing that gets discussed there
Fumesucker
Dec 2012
#40
Can his ISP retrieve his internet postings? Just been wondering about that.
Little Star
Dec 2012
#72
Possibly to erase all traces of his mother trying to commit him to a mental facility.
JimDandy
Dec 2012
#87
If his Mother did it she would probably have just smashed the computer. But the person
Auntie Bush
Dec 2012
#96