RE: Interesting One - tips

["Richard H. Cotterell" <seec () mail retina ar>]

Ref: Mark Ribbans <mark.ribbans () ctel com au>'s
     message dated 31 October 2002, 23:59 hours.

> 2c..
>
> > From my experience working in the IT dept of a defence\aerospace
> company, the standard for wiping hard disks that had contained
> classified or higher data was to smash it with a hammer and chisel and
> have it disposed of.
>
> Mark Ribbans

I would think it cheaper and less energy intensive to open the disk case 
and take out the disks and burn them...  :-)

Two ideas come to mind for WINDOWS users:

#1 - Eraser v5.3 will offer you the option of either: [a] Gutmann - 35 
passes; [b] US DoD - 7 passes; or [c] Pseudorandom - 1 pass
    
   I would like to hear of anyone having recovered data after a Gutmann 
pass.

#2 - An interesting article well worth a read by Iolo Davidson can be had 
at the following URL:

<http://www.bonaventura.free-online.co.uk/realdelete/realdeal.txt>

An interesting tool to have ( and I bet many Windows users have never 
given this aspect a thought) is *Swapfove* which used in conjuntion with 
Davidson's *scorch.zip* utility will wipe your SWAPFILE, the weak link to 
data recovery in Windows machines that will provide plenty on interesting 
data to those who wish to search a hard disk.  

--
Richard H. Cotterell <mailto:seec () mail retina ar>

Thoughts to reflect on:
 #1. Action to be effective must be directed to clearly conceived ends.
     -Jawaharial Nehru

 #2. Success depends on previous preparation, and without such preparation
     there is sure to be failure.
     -Confucius
 
 #3. There are no perfect solutions; only intelligent choices.
     -Caterpiller advertisement