Secure delete

Secure Empty Trash

Some time ago I sold my last PC, because I was not using it anymore. Of course I decided to full format the harddrive before giving it away.

But as a nerd I wanted to do a short experiment. I ran Ontrack Easy Recovery over it and it could recover all files. Really all files, no one was missing, although I used a complete total full format!

Before that I thought, it would be secure enough for private usage to just erase the disk. I was truly thinking only professional companies could recover the data by using special mechanics, magnetic tools and some kind of vacuum technology.

To recover a simple quickformat is easy, because the sectors, except for the file allocation map, are not touched or changed in any way.

The next step, still being shocked from my new detection, I wiped the whole disk with PGP and three turns. Then the Ontrack Easy Recovery could not find anything more. Now it is home user proof.

However, do you have some important files on your Mac which should not get to be recovered?

The Mac OS X has a builtin secure deletetion which is available from the finder’s menubar. Select “Finder”, “Secure Empty Trash” and then the files are gone. Forever and shreddered!