Safely wipe out data without using a third party software

Asked By Hannah 270 points N/A Posted on - 05/10/2011

I have a set of electronic documents on my office computer. I am changing offices and I need to wipe out the information off the office computer. How can I do this without using a third party software ?

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• Question Category: Windows XP

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Answered By WhizBoy 0 points N/A #91538

Safely wipe out data without using a third party software

When you delete files from a computer, what actually happens is that the file pointer entry in the FAT table is changed. This means that the "entry point" to your file is erased, whereas the body of the file remains intact. There are tools that can recover the body part, thereby effecting a recovery. It is actually difficult to ensure the file is totally wiped out without actually using a third party tool to do it.

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Answered By MathGirl 0 points N/A #91539

Safely wipe out data without using a third party software

Its going to be difficult but you can do a combination of things to ensure its going to be "hard to recover".

• The first step would be to empty the recycle bin.

There are recycle bins in each drive. So ensure you empty the recycle bin fully.

• The next step I would take is, to copy a big file to the same location where the private documents were.

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Answered By WhizBoy 0 points N/A #91540

Safely wipe out data without using a third party software

If you are using windows XP, I would suggest you run the disk defragment utility as well. The disk defragment utility re-allocates the hard disk clusters so that mostly used programs are put first and the subsequent static data last. There is a chance that this procedure will put a block of data from another file to the location of the files that you want removed.  It is to be noted that you need to do this with your virus scanner off. Else it will take a long time.

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Answered By Hannah 270 points N/A #91541

Safely wipe out data without using a third party software

I did both the above suggestions. The office computer has two disk partitions. The documents I have are on the second drive. So I deleted the files, emptied the recycle bin as well. Then i copied a big movie file as well. Then i ran the disk defrag utility. I would think now that the files are totally gone! Thank you!

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Answered By WhizBoy 0 points N/A #91542

Safely wipe out data without using a third party software

Wait! Did you mention you have 2 disk partitions? Well you can do a disk format on the second partition. You can copy all the required files to the first partition. Then you can do a disk format on it.

• Right click the drive
• Select Format
• Say "yes" to the warning box.
• ENSURE you pick the option for a FULL format (not Quick format)

If you do a double format, i.e. format with Fat32, and then again with NTFS, your files will be truly gone!

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Answered By MathGirl 0 points N/A #91543

Safely wipe out data without using a third party software

Whiz Boy! That is a fantastic idea! I am sure the double formatting will work!

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Answered By Hannah 270 points N/A #91545

Safely wipe out data without using a third party software

Thank you Whiz Boy! I did as advised. It never occurred to me to format the disk. Even I am now pretty confident that the files are wiped out. Thank you again!

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