subject: Safest Way To Delete Hard Drive Data [print this page] What is the most sure shot way of ensuring your data is not accessible to others when you are selling your hard drive? Can formatting a hard drive rid it of all the data that was once saved in it? So what can a user do to ensure that his vital data doesn't fall in wrong hands? These and similar questions crop in the mind of a user when he/she is at the verge of selling his/her old hard drive. But the answer to these questions is very simple! Overwrite either all the data or that particular data files with data that is of no use. This process is known as
But the question that arises here is, what is the need to overwrite, when a simple process of formatting is available?
This is because when some data is deleted, or when a system is formatted, only the storage location information of file(s) is deleted. The files themselves remain intact, and need to be overwritten to become completely inaccessible. No process of deletion can remove the files, until a file eraser software that overwrites the files is run. These data eraser software use special algorithms to overwrite all the data that was saved in your hard drive.
Once your files, and data is overwritten, no recovery process can ever reclaim it, thus ensuring that the information can not be misused by anybody. This process not only deletes data, but also any kinds of virus, or any malicious applications from the drive. Normally, a hard drive wipe software performs more than one pass to overwrite data to ensure complete inaccessibility of everything that was once stored in the drive.
Stellar Phoenix Wipe is a safe file eraser software that makes up to 35 passes to wipe any traces of files and other data. This complex data eraser software is compatible with various versions of Windows operating system including Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000.
