Which Software is best for securely deleting files and sanitizing hard drives?

#1 (**permalink**) 08-11-2006, 12:01 PM

Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard) and
sanitizing hard drives?

TIA

#2 (**permalink**) 08-11-2006, 12:17 PM

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:01:41 -0500, david jones <wert@wert.net>
wrote:

>Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard) and
>sanitizing hard drives?

dban.sourceforge.net/
--
Kind regards,
Gerard Bok

#3 (**permalink**) 08-11-2006, 11:22 PM

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:01:41 -0500, david jones wrote:

> Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard) and
> sanitizing hard drives?
>
> TIA

Eraser, it's free and we have it in the privacy software section of our web
site, regards
--
Admin

* www.privacyoffshore.net (No Logs Internet Surfing)
* Anonymous Secure Offshore SSH-2 Surfing Tunnels

#4 (**permalink**) 08-12-2006, 12:19 AM

Admins wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:01:41 -0500, david jones wrote:
>
>> Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard) and
>> sanitizing hard drives?
>>
>> TIA
>
> Eraser, it's free and we have it in the privacy software section of our web
> site, regards

But you're aware of the limitations of Eraser when deleting files from
an active file system? I might address much more problems than the
common bullshitty programs, but SDelete from Sysinternals still does a
better job. It also has a description of what exactly it does and why it
does so.

#5 (**permalink**) 08-12-2006, 01:36 AM

On Sat, 12 Aug 2006 02:19:55 +0200, Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:

> Admins wrote:
>> On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:01:41 -0500, david jones wrote:
>>
>>> Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard) and
>>> sanitizing hard drives?
>>>
>>> TIA
>>
>> Eraser, it's free and we have it in the privacy software section of our web
>> site, regards
>
> But you're aware of the limitations of Eraser when deleting files from
> an active file system? I might address much more problems than the

These programs and the end result they give is always a matter of opinion,
but eraser is an excellent free product that far exceeds the government 7
wipes standard. Eraser works on all the windows operating systems and can
go as high as 35 wipes and will wipe slack space, directory entries, master
file table entries, and still gives the option of user defined parameters.
> common bullshitty programs, but SDelete from Sysinternals still does a
> better job. It also has a description of what exactly it does and why it
> does so.

It sounds interesting, but I've always been a fan of eraser. I'm glad you
didn't bring up EE, lol

--
Admin

* www.privacyoffshore.net (No Logs Internet Surfing)
* Anonymous Secure Offshore SSH-2 Surfing Tunnels

#6 (**permalink**) 08-12-2006, 02:58 AM

"david jones" <wert@wert.net> wrote in message
news:uasod25g6lma4okd95qemjbgqfvg57ivud@4ax.com...
> Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard)
> and
> sanitizing hard drives?

http://www.killdisk.com/

#7 (**permalink**) 08-12-2006, 05:55 AM

Admins wrote:

>> But you're aware of the limitations of Eraser when deleting files from
>> an active file system? I might address much more problems than the
>
> These programs and the end result they give is always a matter of opinion,

No, about technical implementation.

> but eraser is an excellent free product that far exceeds the government 7
> wipes standard.

Well, there's absolutely no need to do more than about 4 overwrites.

> Eraser works on all the windows operating systems and can
> go as high as 35 wipes and will wipe slack space, directory entries, master
> file table entries, and still gives the option of user defined parameters.

But it doesn't pay attention to journaling file systems carefully. It
might and does provably happen that some data still exist in the
journal, and it also might and does provably happen that you're writing
to new clusters exclusively allocated instead of overwriting the old
clusters.

That's why I referred to the description of SDelete's algorithm.

>> common bullshitty programs, but SDelete from Sysinternals still does a
>> better job. It also has a description of what exactly it does and why it
>> does so.
>
> It sounds interesting, but I've always been a fan of eraser. I'm glad you
> didn't bring up EE, lol

Eraser and SDelete are about the only known serious implementations.

#8 (**permalink**) 08-12-2006, 07:57 PM

Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:
> Admins wrote:
>
>>> But you're aware of the limitations of Eraser when deleting files from
>>> an active file system? I might address much more problems than the
>> These programs and the end result they give is always a matter of opinion,
>
> No, about technical implementation.
>
>> but eraser is an excellent free product that far exceeds the government 7
>> wipes standard.
>
> Well, there's absolutely no need to do more than about 4 overwrites.
>
>> Eraser works on all the windows operating systems and can
>> go as high as 35 wipes and will wipe slack space, directory entries, master
>> file table entries, and still gives the option of user defined parameters.
>
> But it doesn't pay attention to journaling file systems carefully. It
> might and does provably happen that some data still exist in the
> journal, and it also might and does provably happen that you're writing
> to new clusters exclusively allocated instead of overwriting the old
> clusters.
>
> That's why I referred to the description of SDelete's algorithm.
>
>>> common bullshitty programs, but SDelete from Sysinternals still does a
>>> better job. It also has a description of what exactly it does and why it
>>> does so.
>> It sounds interesting, but I've always been a fan of eraser. I'm glad you
>> didn't bring up EE, lol
>
> Eraser and SDelete are about the only known serious implementations.
What about the linux command shred? Does that work well against forensic hard
drive software?

#9 (**permalink**) 08-12-2006, 08:33 PM

In message <44dc7560.2283789@News.Individual.NET>, Gerard Bok
<bok118@zonnet.nl> writes
>On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:01:41 -0500, david jones <wert@wert.net>
>wrote:
>
>>Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard) and
>>sanitizing hard drives?
>
>dban.sourceforge.net/

PGP has a wipe disk option.
--
Nospam

#10 (**permalink**) 08-13-2006, 01:32 AM

Try Steganos Shredder - its part of the Steganos Security Suite 9
www.steganos.com). there is a trial download too.

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:58:55 -0500, "Vanguard"
<vanguard.news@yahooNIX.com> wrote:

>"david jones" <wert@wert.net> wrote in message
>news:uasod25g6lma4okd95qemjbgqfvg57ivud@4ax.com.. .
>> Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard)
>> and
>> sanitizing hard drives?
>
>
>http://www.killdisk.com/

#11 (**permalink**) 08-13-2006, 04:00 AM

~David~ wrote:

> What about the linux command shred? Does that work well against forensic hard
> drive software?

Actually no. It's an outdated software that never addresses modern
issues like journaling.

Well, why don't you try it on your on. Run Windows with an NTFS file
system or Linux with ext3. Write some content, overwrite it with 'shred'
or alikes, the immediately do a hard shut down and then search for the
previous content of the file.

#12 (**permalink**) 08-13-2006, 07:21 PM

The answer can only be partial, I have tried PGP Wiper, Steganos Wiper,
and Paragon, without doubt I prefer Paragon Disk Wipe the reason being is
the number of choices it gives you are overwhelming, and the only wiping
software I know of that can delete a whole OS booting from a CD-Rom. I
heard DBAN is good too but havent tested it.

Neither PGP Wiper, Steganos or Paragon are free, DBAN is.

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:01:41 +0100, david jones <wert@wert.net> wrote:

> Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard) and
> sanitizing hard drives?
>
> TIA
>

#13 (**permalink**) 08-14-2006, 03:45 AM

Truncat wrote:
>
> The answer can only be partial, I have tried PGP Wiper, Steganos
> Wiper, and Paragon, without doubt I prefer Paragon Disk Wipe the
> reason being is the number of choices it gives you are overwhelming,

Who cares, if it doesn't do its job right?

> and the only wiping software I know of that can delete a whole OS
> booting from a CD-Rom.

Lol? I can even do this from the running system with 'dd' under Windows,
but surely almost any Linux/BSD Live CD does the job as well.

I heard DBAN is good too but havent tested it.

> Neither PGP Wiper, Steganos or Paragon are free, DBAN is.

And apples are no bananas. DBAN is supposed to overwrite entire
partitions and harddisks, but not single files - and isn't suitable for
the latter either.

#14 (**permalink**) 08-15-2006, 03:58 PM

Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:

> ~David~ wrote:
>
> > What about the linux command shred? Does that work well against forensic hard
> > drive software?
>
> Actually no. It's an outdated software that never addresses modern
> issues like journaling.

But alternating shred/sync calls does.

#15 (**permalink**) 08-15-2006, 07:29 PM

Anonyma wrote:
> Sebastian Gottschalk wrote:
>
>> ~David~ wrote:
>>
>>> What about the linux command shred? Does that work well against forensic hard
>>> drive software?
>> Actually no. It's an outdated software that never addresses modern
>> issues like journaling.
>
> But alternating shred/sync calls does.

Uh, no. This just addresses caching in RAM and at the hard disk.

Journaling means that a copy of the data exists somewhere else, and that
writing to the very same files might end in allocation of new sections
while freeing previous ones, leaving a copy as well.

#16 (**permalink**) 08-16-2006, 01:57 AM

<malam> wrote in message
news:370td2l2cifhejtm6480g4obmdifftq8ed@4ax.com...
> Try Steganos Shredder - its part of the Steganos Security Suite 9
> www.steganos.com). there is a trial download too.
>
> "Vanguard" wrote:
>
>>"david jones" wrote in message ...
>>> Which Software is best for securely deleting files (Gov Standard)
>>> and
>>> sanitizing hard drives?
>>
>>
>>http://www.killdisk.com/

A huge SUITE of multiple programs when just one will do quite nicely?
Geesh. Even SysInternals has a file "shredder" utility without having
to do a disk install of a suite of program, especially since that is
the disk you want to erase! The user wanted to sanitize an entire
disk, not have to install 45 megabytes of more software on it.

#17 (**permalink**) 08-16-2006, 07:08 AM

Vanguard wrote:
> Even SysInternals has a file "shredder" utility without having
> to do a disk install of a suite of program, especially since that is the
> disk you want to erase!

Exactly. Erasing an entire hard disk isn't on discussion at all, as it's
trivial. "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdX", and one can do a similar thing
on Windows as well (using dd.exe and a preallocated sparse file with 4
Exabyte of zero content). Assuming a standard-conformant IDE controller
setup, a self-written would do the job with less than 0.5 KByte of code,
which fits into the boot sector and works without any operating system
at all.