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RZetlin
April 28th, 2004, 21:14
Can someone please recommend me a freeware software that completely erase a file.
didamangi
April 28th, 2004, 21:19
Eraser :D

http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/
Katsuya
April 28th, 2004, 21:20
the only way to do that is completely formatting the medium.
RZetlin
April 28th, 2004, 21:36
Is this software any good?

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/default.php
Foxfyre
April 28th, 2004, 21:52
the only way to do that is completely formatting the medium.

No, the only way to EFFECTIVELY and COMPLETELY erase a file is to use a file erasing program that overwrites the file a set amount of times with random data.

Simply formatting your harddrive won't do it, because files can be almost effortlessly recovered off a formatted hdd. Why do you think there are companies speciallizing in harddrive recovery??? If simply formatting your harddrive completely deleted everything there would be no such thing as harddrive recovery. WinXP accidentally formatted the wrong drive once, and I recovered 6 gigs of information off that drive, with maybe only 5 files not working.
RZetlin
April 28th, 2004, 21:55
the only way to do that is completely formatting the medium.

No, the best way to prevent data from being recover is to smash up the hard drive and put it into a grider.
Chrono Archangel
April 28th, 2004, 22:07
No, the best way to prevent data from being recover is to smash up the hard drive and put it into a grider.

lol so true. i think puting a super magnet on it will make it unrecoverable also.
does someone knoe exactly why a formatted disk can be recovered? im not sure and id really like to know why... IIRC the data isnt erased, only the FAT entries are changed?
n_w95482
April 29th, 2004, 03:30
lol so true. i think puting a super magnet on it will make it unrecoverable also.
does someone knoe exactly why a formatted disk can be recovered? im not sure and id really like to know why... IIRC the data isnt erased, only the FAT entries are changed?
I think it's something like that. I think it just marks everything on the HD as overwritable so it stays on there as long as the space isn't needed by a program. When it is, then the old file is overwritten.
lido884
May 2nd, 2004, 13:26
Try the one that come with norton antivirus pro 2004 (of u have it).

If not, go to www.softonic.com and serach for "File Eraser"

Thanks,
LiDo884