Unable to permanently delete data

Hi all,

I’ve encountered a problem I hope someone can help me with. Afraid I’m a near-novice, so treat me gently!

All the data erasers I’ve used don’t seem able to delete the many JPEGS and word documents I would like to see the back of. I routinely use CCleaner, set to the 35-pass option after each surfing session. Have tried using several data removal utilities including Stellar Wipe and Eraser but the data is easily recovered, intact, using a recovery utility called Pandora. Even blitzing individual JPEGS with a 35-pass overwrite has no effect.

I’m currently using Windows XP & following advice have turned off the System Restore and Volume Shadow Service to prevent copies of the data being made, but this has had no effect. The only thing that works is overwriting the entire hard drive, but this is time consuming. What I need to know is why all this data seems impervious to my attempts to delete it.

Any advice would be much appreciated

 

Try downloading DIRSNOOP (25 free uses; but there's a somewhat bothersome wrokaround so you can use it again and again) & purge the MFT records...Also, elementary note: make sure you have configured ERASER properly...I use it all the time & no problems like you describe....

Let me know....

Nick

 

Thanks for the information. I did as you suggested, downloaded DIRSNOOP & purged the MFT. Before running the Pandora recovery utlility I also uninstalled ERASER & detached my secondary Hard Drive. Pandora then recovered the JPEGS which I transferred to a folder. I ran DIRSNOOP's wipe facility, set to the 35-pass & including all read-only files on the individual JPEGS. Unfortnately, Pandora was still able to recover all the data in pristine condition.

Any other suggestions?

 

according to the space centre in america (nasa) they claim to be able to recover data from any hard drive no matter what state it is in

if someone tells you that they can successfully remove digital data from a hard drive, then they wither work for nasa or are telling you porky pies

 

There was an item on the news here last night about recycling PCs.
In Belgium it is compulsory to take broken or unwanted electrical goods to a re-cycling depot (every town or city has them)
The item referred to PCs and said the best thing to do before throwing it away is to remove the HD and physically destroy it (with a hammer) because a lot of data is being recovered from the items.
To anyone with the right applications it does not matter how many times you over write it there are bits that can be recovered.

Erase ALL Data Before Recycling a Computer
Before you recycle a computer you must securely erase all hard drive data.

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America and old hard drive data may put you at risk. A recent study of 129 old hard drives revealed more than 5,000 credit card numbers, medical correspondences, love letters, pornography, bank account information, and other confidential data.

Deleting files or formatting a hard drive will not erase your data!

To ensure your data is gone use WhiteCanyon's WipeDrive before you recycle a computer. WipeDrive is approved by the US Department of Defense and is listed by computer recycling sites including the Computer Recycling Center (CRC) and TechSoup. To clean and recycle a computer simply insert the WipeDrive CD, restart your computer, and follow the prompts.

 

The situation could be a lot worse. Most of the criminal types that snatch laptops and steal PC's when robbing houses are not very tech-savvy. That will change and not for the better. I'm very careful what I put on my laptop, just in case someone manages to walk off with it.

 

What Pandora program are you using? From what I see Pandora is a logger so it is making a copy of activity on the HD. My guess is that you are adequately overwriting the files but Pandora has a cached copy somewhere else on the HD.

 

I'm using Pandora Recovery v.2.0.7.
I've looked but havent been able to find a cached copy anywhere.

I did find a large ERAFSWD.TMP file whilst using ERASER. Apparently it stores the files it wants to delete there, but if it stops before its finished - which is what was happening when I used it - it can't permanently delete them.