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Probably safe but, personally, I'd run multiple passes with DBAN.

Your method is fine for an external drive. The bit about your progress meter is typical if you have Overwrite Cluster Tip Area enabled. The progress meter seems to report the first and last tasks (cluster tips and directories) in a non-linear manner compared to the main task (unused space).

If your drive is NTFS format, the problem may be related to the fact that very small files can reside entirely within the MFT.

I agree that DBAN isn't suited for removable media but why not Eraser? If you format the CD-RW to wipe the file allocation table, then Erase unused space, why wouldn't it ovewrite all sectors? (This assumes you have some form of drive letter access/small packet writing utility for your...

Read Gutmann's paper at http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html

Just curious why you say that. In any case, given the low price of media, is there a reason you don't just physically destroy the disks?

I probably should have said "mostly" rather than "usually". BIOS and firmware for CD/DVD burners, printers, access point/routers, etc. is often stored in non-volatile memory. Since that kind of stuff is virtually the same for every unit made of a particular make/model, it's harmless from a...

Oops! We crossed paths ... it took me a while to realize what you probably meant and I was editing my earlier response at the same time you were replying.

Depends on what you mean by "all the data". To wipe data but not the OS, that would be true ... you don't want to format the drive. To wipe the entire drive, use DBAN. EDIT: If you're referring to my suggestion in the thread re: Erasing an external hard drive, you're correct that formatting...

If you bought your PC with the OS installed, you may want to check how your drive is partitioned. 3 GB happens to be the typical size for a hidden FAT32 partition in which an OEM OS backup is stored.

That's what caused the problem. In "How can I fix this? - Option 2", did you look for the folder ~ERAFSWD.TMP ?

A typical Windows XP OS backup should be roughly 2.4 GB used, e.g., a FAT32 with Capacity = 3GB and Free Space = 600 MB. I've used Eraser 5.7 to erase freespace on my C:\ drive dozens of times with no problem. It never touched my other partitions (a FAT and a FAT32 without volume labels). I...

Actually an external hard drive will normally show up in My Computer as a local drive (either the next available drive letter or an assigned drive letter depending on setup). If you have it set up as a shared network drive, I recommend you ensure that other users are not accessing it when you...

Use Eraser to erase all files on the external drive, then erase freespace on the drive.

RegScanner is a handy little freeware utility that lets you search the registry a lot faster than regedit. It then lets you jump to any entry using regedit. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/regscanner.html

Aside from media (harddrive, CD, DVD, floppy, etc.) data can be in: Volatile memory (RAM, various hardware caches) which loses data on shutdown. Supposedly they can dismantle the chip, acid etch the memory strata and read it bit-by-bit, but let's be realistic ... Non-volatile memory...

The Recycle Bin is just a desktop link to each user's folder within C:\RECYCLER The individual folders have names like S-1-5-21-343818398-2146017927-1417001333-13029. In Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options > View, you have to deselect "Hide protected operating system files" in order...

If you're using Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files This is a hidden folder so you must set Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options > View > Hidden files and folders to "Show hidden files and folders" to see...

You are correct. The physical location of the file does not change. The complete path and file name is stored in a hidden file called Info in the Recycled folder. The deleted file is renamed, using the following syntax: D<original drive letter of file><#>.<original extension> When you...

I think the logic is that if you erase the file attributes stored at the beginning and/or end of a file (depending on the app), the file will not be easily recovered.