Erasing info on hardrive

Not that I would ever want to...but do any of you smart guys know if it is possible to erase a file, delete it from a hard drive and erase any sign that it had been erased and deleted in the first place? I wonder if it could be erased to the point of no detective (FBI, CIA, UFO ha ha) or ANYONE can access the old information?? If so, who is that capable?? More specifically:

I am involved in a lawsuit. THe other side has issued a subpoena to examine my computer system and hard -drive. I believe they are looking for financial records or documents they believe will contradict my earlier sworn statements. Just for the sake of argument, is there any way to erase select files in the manner noted above? Also, how does one accidently get a horrible virus that would just destroy the hard drive completely?...Again, I ask just for the "sake of argument". .....

One with the best answer gets a years free supply of Elephant garlic from my garden. Or something equally as fun...
Thanks in advance!!
V

 

a hammer would work just fine

 

and if this is a cop, you guys will be hearing from them in a few days!......wobbles

 

In so many words, I think you are saying it is not possible to erase something from my hardrive without destroying the hardrive physically. SO why didn't they tell me that before I used my work computer to look at naked men online? If only I would have asked the ENRON boys before now....

ANYONE have a hammer?

 

i've got a couple...

 

Re: Erasing info on hardrive..Ace

So what kind of hammer do I need????

 

"Bing bing Maxwell's silver hammer........"

 

So we can send people into space, remove unwanted hair, have our faces reconstructed but wherever I go on my computer is now going to be viewed by someone else. If that someone else has a subpoena...it cannot be erased. Is this Your Final answer????

 

Re: Erasing info on hardrive..Ace

claw should work...

there is one way...but i'm not telling. plus, whatever you do makes you guilty. do nothing and your guilty.

 

Re: Erasing info on hardrive..Ace

Ok so who can tell me? Please. If I did something wrong I would feel bad but all the records they want they can have, I just don't want them to see the personal stuff. Or see that I erased it. That makes me look guilty.

 

Re: Erasing info on hardrive..Ace

well, you'll lose EVERYTHING...FOREVER. so i doubt you want to go that route.

good luck to you!

btw...welcome to majorgeeks!

 

LOL!
Yep!
If you REALLY want to do it right, you physically DESTROY the storage media.

I mean, you lay into it.
Demagnitize it, bust it open, take a bench grinder to it, take it to the gun range and shoot it with a .45 caliber pistol....

then, you talk bad to it and stomp it in the mud...

Physically destroy it big time. No forensics will be able to recover the data then...

 

Of course, before you do that, you can back up any files you want to keep to a seperate drive, or to cdrom, or something....

 

On a more useful note. Right click on your Recycle Bin on your Desktop. There is a "shred contents of recycle bin (wash and bleach)" option. You can use that if you wish.

The other option is to take out the old hard drive and let a friend mind it for you, and replace it with another one.

(You can keep Da "Elephant Garlic" - Phwew!!)

 

Has Lugz said, a magenet. A hammer might smash the platters, but forensic techiques allow extracting data froma fragment of a platter.

The most common large magnet is one on the back of a speaker. Take the speaker out, open the drive and leave it on top for an hour or so.

 

Thats only if you have norton installed. I think. Or some other utility.


Yeah a hammer would dislodge the platters, making it unusable... but take out the platters and put them in a testing rig... all the data is still in-tact.

You need to bust it open, and stick it under a HUGE electromagnet. Like the sort you get at a scrapyard. Or a speaker magnet, as freddy says. That works too.

 

I would think, in this case, writing 0's to the drives, several times, would be sufficient. Then reinstall Windows.

I mean, do you really think they are going to spend that much time and money to sift through your computer?

They are probably just going to look through the files already there

The other option, that is less destructive, is get a new hard drive, and swap it with the old one until the heat is off.

Then there is nothing to chance.

 

I say you take a plasma tourch to it.. melt the platter into goo.. no chance of residual mag then

 

On a less serious note...are platters soft enough to go through a wood chipper?

 

and then whack it some more

Then you can turn it into a sculpture and then nobody will ever know. mwahah

 

A really powerful one probably.. the platters are only coated.

 

There are ways to read residual data off of a drive that is supposed to have been erased. The methods are confidential as is the quality of the results. Probably nothing that will stand up in court.

I don't trust the programs that 'permanantly' erase drives. After all, these programs would put MS and Symantec on the bad side of the FBI.

 

I better leave it alone. If I destroy the things they are looking for I cannot prove that I was honest. I will have to just face that they get to look at All my other stuff.
Thanks for all your replies.
V

 

and in the end, valerie, the truth is always the best way out, no matter how much it hurts.

 

Of course, there's another option. For a nominal fee, I know a few fellas that can many anything (or anyone) disappear.



and they still haven't found Hoffa,

 

Uncomfortable or not, that's the best policy. There are programs readily available (from right here even) that will scrub the data to US government standards. There are registry cleaners that will remove links to old dead files. There are all kinds of cleaners.

But. Windows makes tracks all through its systems for what you do and what you have, and some of the pro data recoverers are VERY good at sniffing out what you've done. If you remove data that the subpoena requests you can go to jail. If you remove data and try to hide that you've removed it... 1. A pro may be able to recover it, embarrassing you anyway, and 2. If they get wind that you've removed something and they CAN'T verify what it was, they may assume the worst and you might go to jail anyway.

Don't monkey with it. Embarrassment isn't the worst that can happen to you.

 

@ Goldy:- Yes, I don't have anything to do with Norton's - might have been some other program, installed long ago.

The point being, as Adrynalyne said, no need to trash the H.D.D. There are plenty of free/shareware progs to do a secure erase to that your drive can't be mirrored. They just wipe over the entire file area multiple times, rather that just changing the first few bytes of header data, which is all regular delete does. Or else, as we said swap the H.D.D.'s and put the original somewhere secure until the heat is over.

I advised a friend of mine about this same issue not long ago. His ex-partner was giving him crap and trying to frame him up for Fraud (he was innocent of any wrong doing - but it didn't stop crooked cops trying to have a go).

On the other hand, if you have nothing to hide, and you trust the integrity of the Police, don't worry about it.


@ G.T.:- Yeah - Word!...'Nuf said!

 

Just bury the hard drive like Jimmy Hoffa...LOL

 

Eh, didn't they find Jimmy Hoffa?

 

Nope. But nobody knows who had Hoffa. They do know that she has the computer, and certain records.

 

What GT said, and also, check out my sig! (the one by Horatio Caine )

 

What G.T. said. There's plenty of free utilities to do thorough erasure. Each overwrite obscures the original more and more. Read the Gutmann paper .