Don't want to recover my data!!!

[rhitwick]

Hi, guys. I've a 500GB Maxtor external drive. I've formatted from command prompt, using "Format" command.
Then again formatted it by right clicking on its icon in MyComputer.

After doing all these, how do I ensure that its content can't be recovered?

[krishnandu.sarkar]

U can use low-level format tool......or the HDD tools in UBCD.

[Termin@L]

or simply use "clean free space" frm CCleaner...

[pimpom]

Most hard disk manufacturers provide free utilities on their website and they usually include a zero-fill tool. This writes zeroes over the entire disk and effectively deletes everything permanently.

Or you can use Eraser. It's a free tool for securely erasing data so that they cannot be recovered. It's not just for erasing a whole partition. You can permanently erase selected files and folders and apparently empty space which still contains deleted data.

Information: http://eraser.heidi.ie/

Download: http://www.heidi.ie/node/6

[Cool Buddy]

alternatively, you can fill in new data which will overwrite everything and delete them. the old data will be lost permanently. Though this does not sound very technical but it is more effective than others sometimes.

[Ecstasy]

There are lot of softwares which you can use to erase the data from HDD forever. One which I'm using is 'Tune up utilities 07'.

[Anorion]

Use eraser, its a small, free, very secure cleaning software. It rewrites garbage data on the entire drive. Two or three passes is enough to securely delete the data, beyond recovery. It is still theoretically possible by some kind of forensics team, but no one would invest that kind of money. FreeCommander is another alternative. It would, however, have been faster to erase the written data using any of these software, that way, you would not have to clean the entire disk.

[rhitwick]

Thank you all for replying.
I've formatted the drive twice as mentioned earlier. Its now blank.
Can the "eraser" s/w still be used.

Is there no "Secure Format Tool"?
.
.
.
.
Found this http://www.killdisk.com/.
Has anyone experienced it?

[desiibond]

something like Active@ Kill Disk that has Department of Defense approval.

[Anorion]

Yes Eraser can still be used. Instead of cleaning the files, you will have to clean the disk.

[paroh]

just wipe ur hard disk with some good wiping utility and use DOD -3 or DOD -7 or ultimate DOD-35. But wiping with DOD-35 can take days to wipe the information. And also wipe (MFT)· Wipe records of small files stored directly in the NTFS Master File Table.