Hi could you please tell me what you think is the best free software used for disk sanitization? I've heard alot of DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) for the disk level, and im thinking of using the Freeraser for erasing files and folders? someone elsewhere also suggested just deleting the folder system 32. This doesnt appeal to me though - another person suggested using gutmann to wipe my hdd? would anyone prefer gutmann over DBAN? please do tell what you yourself use to sanitize your hdd's and what you consider best. Thanks. Btw im using windows OS.
Hi could you please tell me what you think is the best free software used for disk sanitization?
Best for whom? And in what context? What have you done to try to answer the question yourself?
With that out of the way … there are no absolutes.
What are you trying to accomplish? How much money (or time and money, if you prefer to split it that way) do you want to force the perceived enemy to pay or invest to retrieve something from the disk in question?
If you are trying to prevent access to classified information, you can usually say 'we don't this information to become accessible for the next 12 months.' Or 18 months. Or 48. Or ever. Can you make such an estimate? That would help a lot in establishing if a pure software solution is reasonable.
Or can you estimate the damage you are trying to prevent? (Probably not, as you're asking for something free, but I thought I'd better ask anyway.)
If a disk is reaslly what you what to erase, fine. But often, it's a question of preventing information to fall in the wrong hands … and that usually involves more than just a hard drive.
But without such details, I see very little reason to suspect that DBAN will do less than you want.
And if you're concerned about Gutmann erasing … read https://www . cs . auckland . ac . nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html#Epilogue .
Guttmann several passes make NO sense whatsoever on any modern (i.e. produced in the last ten or fifteen years), actually anything with more than a single 00 (or other hex value) pass is senseless.
Do one single pass of 00*s with *any* program you "like", faster will be internal ATA Safeerase.
Please, do search on the forum, there are many (tens) of threads dealing with this.
jaclaz