Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (
More info?)
Previously Bob Willard <BobwBSGS@trashthis.comcast.net> wrote:
> Arno Wagner wrote:
>> Previously Tod <no_spam_me@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>>I've got a customer who needs a program that will wipe
>>>the unused space (NTFS) of a Win XP boot hard drive in use.
>>>Old data that may still be there.
>>
>>
>> Safest way is to do a file-wise backup of the partition (with a
>> software like "tar"), wipe the partition entirely and restore the
>> backup. With any other approach you cannot really be sure what you
>> get. The simplest programms will likely only wipe the free clusters,
>> just as filling the drive up with an all-zero file would do. More
>> advanced programms will also wipe the free space in clusters at the
>> end of files that do not have data in all secors. Still better
>> software will wipe old directory entries as well, but here it gets
>> really difficult.
>>
>> The problem is finding out what a pice of software that claims
>> to wipe "all free space" actually does. Of course with the
>> backup-wipe-restore approach you still need to check that the
>> software used does not backup more than it is supposed to.
>>
>> Arno
>>
> It is not all that hard to see what one of the wipers does, by using
> a hex-editor to look at raw sectors before and after wiping. I did
> that with Eraser, and it seems to do what it claims; but, I admit that
> I only looked at a few sectors.
Well, personally, _I_ would do the same. But that does not qualify
as "easy" for the verage user.
Arno