Erase Methods

[n8chavez]

Any advice on what is the best erase method? Of course I know that the 'best' anything is subjective, but in this case I mean secure yet practical. I've heard a lot of people say that on modern drive a couple of passes of pseudo data is enough. Is that true?

I don't buy into to fact that more passes equals more security.

 

[Robbie]

my preferred method is just a one pass PRNG. I see little reason for doing more than that. I run that once or twice a week.

Once a month, on what I call my "computer maintenance day", along with running AVG anti-virus check, a-squared scan, spybot scan and registry optimisation I also run a one pass PRNG, then defrag the hard drive then run another one pass PRNG.

I also use the on-demand feature of Eraser to delete certain folders on a regular basis (eg the Firefox cache folder, passwords file, history file, temp folder) and I use CCleaner too.

I reckon that's probably about as secure as is needed.

 

[Overwriter]

Hi n8chavez

I second everything Robbie has suggested.

I personally only use a single pass PRNG, but then again I don’t have any big secrets !

Have you considered encrypting your entire drive with Truecrypt at all ?

 

[n8chavez]

Hi n8chavez

I second everything Robbie has suggested.

I personally only use a single pass PRNG, but then again I don’t have any big secrets !

Have you considered encrypting your entire drive with Truecrypt at all ?

What does "PRNG" mean? And, yes, I have thought of encrypting my drive with TC5. But that is only useful if you turn off your system all the time; there is no point when I stay logged in.

 

[Overwriter]

PRNG = Pseudo Random Number Generator

I have thought of encrypting my drive with TC5. But that is only useful if you turn off your system all the time; there is no point when I stay logged in.

It is very useful should your computer be stolen as they of course have to turn the power off to steal it (assuming it isn’t a lap top).