Deleting Free Space
January 16th, 2022
I have used Evidence Eliminator (install version) in the past and it does a phenomenal job of wiping stuff, however, it does leave a fingerprint and identifies itself.
Edit #1:
Guys, if you don’t have the answer to the question, don’t try to give smart comments, ok? I wipe drives for customers all the time and some are more paranoid than others and don’t want any trace left. I already know that the files need to be overwritten and not deleted. All I asked was if anyone knows of a software app that would not leave it’s brand name. A few years ago, a colleague of mine did this and he used a software that did not leave it’s digital footprint; I just can’t remember the name of it and I don’t know where the “F” he is now.
As far as conscience is concerned, what are you doing on a site? We are all here to get answers and find files that are of interest to us and not to point fingers and accuse people.
Edit #2:
Thank you all for your input. If anyone knows the drive is wiped, that is OK, the objective of my question was to find a program that performs this same task without revealing it’s name, leaving a signature ( a digital footprint revealing it’s name). Thank you again.
Edit #3:
, I have no interest in your answer as you did not even understand the question; you are trying to tell people what is right and what is wrong. If you have a problem with focus on what a person is asking, that’s not my issue. I understand you are a genius and have over 20 years of experience in downloading pirated software, but, try not to be Mr. Goody Too Shoes. Answer the question and if you don’t know the answer or lack ability to answer the question (like in this case), stay out of it. Notice, the rest of the people who replied to my question were, actually, trying to be helpful.
I dont think a portable program would preform it’s function differently to an installed version.
They maybe able to tell that data was wiped as it would be equivalent to free space that has never been written on. Thus, any hard drive that has been used for a period of time should have some traces of data whether or not said data could be recoverable.
That said, if there is a hard drive contains nothing with a time stamp on it (ie, no OS installed when wiped), it may be nondifferentiable to that of a new hard drive.
Anyone with half a clue could tell if free space has been wiped on a drive unless it is replaced with something else (ie over-written).
Why would you worry about that unless your pc has been seized and you have a guilty conscience ?
Could you please repeat the question, I don’t under…, no kidding.
from your edit I think you already know the answer. The response I would give anyone concerned to a high degree, is it depends on who has it and how bad they want the obfuscated data. I don’t work for the nsa but according to ars technical there are techniques that will remove, layer by layer, any overwritten data. The party that wants it, such as nsa level entity can retrieve the data if they wish.
The only certain way, yes you know, destroy the platter. even at that there is some residual data along the pathway. no doubt you already know this. so pick a program, run it multiple times, random, that is the best you can do, and retain the hardware.
edit: may I add, a few years ago is a long time in technology. what may have worked then…
edit.2 beta: “Everyone will know it’s wiped then…Because it won’t be there” my thought precisely. actually I got considering motivations and availability of computing power. money is certainly a prime motivation and there is an entire third world with access to computing power and fine educational institutions, providing plenty of available skilled and knowledgeable people with skills/time/and dump sites filled with us HD’s, so I can indeed see a reasonable concern for discarded HD’s. so it’s is in fact not just upper tier agencies that can access these drives after wiping.
CCleaner > Tools > Drive wiper..
Everyone will know it’s wiped then…Because it won’t be there
Edit #1: Guys, if you don't have the answer to the question, don't try to give smart comments, ok? I wipe drives for customers all the time and some are more paranoid than others and don't want any trace left. I already know that the files need to be overwritten and not deleted...
As far as conscience is concerned, what are you doing on a site? We are all here to get answers and find files that are of interest to us and not to point fingers and accuse people.
I gave you the answer which was not smart-assed. there are only two things to worry about having on a hard drive, kiddie porn and terrorism. is only a concern if you are using a works (or school) pc.
If your “customers” have either of the first two then you should not be wiping free space on their drives as you are comittting an offence.
I have worked in the IT field for over 20 years and never heard of any firm that has customers who want free space shredding they may want full drives shredding, then just use dban or similar, which doesn’t even get installed on the drive.
If you post a question here, then you are going to get honest answers from people mate.
CCleaner > Tools > Drive wiper..
Everyone will know it's wiped then...Because it won't be there
+1 for CCleaner. It’s a great utility and the drive wiper feature is fantastic. Of course, a decent computer forensics worker would be able to find out that CCleaner was used but they would have a heck of a lot of trouble finding the original data if you do the full 35-pass overwrite.
Just out of interest..
If you want to kill a drive and have it not look killed – why not just install a version of linux on it, then reformat and install a different version.. do that three times and then leave it (or reformat again to ntfs – anyone doing deep analysys will see three previous versions of linux on it, that’s all).)
It’ll have Linux on it – anyone suspicious of your activities will seize the drive, look at it, see linux.. maybe install it and boot to it, see it all working.. etc.
I have two HDs here for my laptop – one I use for pirated stuff, the second I install for repairs or if someone was to seize the laptop. (It’s a 5 second job to swap the HD – it’s not screwed in; open pa, whip out D1, whip in C2, close pa.
Just out of interest..
If you want to kill a drive and have it not look killed - why not just install a version of linux on it, then reformat and install a different version.. do that three times and then leave it (or reformat again to ntfs - anyone doing deep analysys will see three previous versions of linux on it, that's all).)
It'll have Linux on it - anyone suspicious of your activities will seize the drive, look at it, see linux.. maybe install it and boot to it, see it all working.. etc.
I have two HDs here for my laptop - one I use for pirated stuff, the second I install for repairs or if someone was to seize the laptop. (It's a 5 second job to swap the HD - it's not screwed in; open pa, whip out D1, whip in C2, close pa.
He’s only asking about wiping free space from what I can gather – although he keeps editing the original post instead of making fresh replies, kinda makes it hard to follow, especially when he’s being abusive.
Does anyone know if I wipe free space on a hard drive with the "portable" version of a disk wipe utility, say, CCleaner, Eraser, etc., can anyone, behind me running the data recovery software, tell if the free space on the drive was wiped?
what you want is active kill disk. make the boot disc and use that, it don’t need to be installed. you also only need to do a one pass wipe on a modern drive to make it totally unrecoverable. http://killdisk.com/killdisk-faq.htm also, for others, is a concern if they use P2P. there’s a member here from England that got arrested because he used P2P to get songs and movies. and also if the computer or hard drive is sold.. so it’s very valid to wipe your tracks for that.
CCleaner and DBan can wipe them off
CCleaner and DBan can wipe them offthose are no good for what he wants, they wipe the entire drive..
what you want is active kill disk. make the boot disc and use that, it don't need to be installed. you also only need to do a one pass wipe on a modern drive to make it totally unrecoverable. http://killdisk.com/killdisk-faq.htm also, for others, is a concern if they use P2P. there's a member here from England that got arrested because he used P2P to get songs and movies. and also if the computer or hard drive is sold.. so it's very valid to wipe your tracks for that.
Anyone who doesn’t use OpenVPN with a decent VPN service for torrents is asking to be caught IMHO, the person who was caught on this board was not using anything.
When selling a hdd you would shred it totally first anyway, not just free space.
One wipe doesn’t mean that items can’t be recovered (at least partially) two to three is forensically better.
what you want is active kill disk. make the boot disc and use that, it don't need to be installed. you also only need to do a one pass wipe on a modern drive to make it totally unrecoverable. http://killdisk.com/killdisk-faq.htm also, for others, is a concern if they use P2P. there's a member here from England that got arrested because he used P2P to get songs and movies. and also if the computer or hard drive is sold.. so it's very valid to wipe your tracks for that.
Anyone who doesn't use OpenVPN with a decent VPN service for torrents is asking to be caught IMHO, the person who was caught on this board was not using anything.
When selling a hdd you would shred it totally first anyway, not just free space.
One wipe doesn't mean that items can't be recovered (at least partially) two to three is forensically better.http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/security-corner/the-great-drive-wiping-controversy-settled-at-last/