I tried a program from PC World - Software, Hardware, Electronics & Gadgets Reviews, Downloads, How-To's & Pricing called sure delete and then downloaded a program called restoration from the same site and after I deleted all the files using the sure delete the restoration program was able to recover all of them. I also tried another program call absolute delete from zdnet.com. and the restoration program recoverd the files again. I use to have a gov erase program but don't know where to find it anymore


can anyone help me to find a good program that will erase all my deleted files and cleanup my free space?

Im going to move this thread to general software ... as it is software your looking for

Do you just want to wipe the files from your hard drive leaving the OS and applications in tact?

You can go to the site I'll link to below and get a list of softwares that will do similar. What you used to have, I can guess, may have been PC Tools. It had a DOD wipe which would make 7 passes at the hard drive, and alternately change every sector and cluster to 0's and 1's. This affected the entire drive.
You can find a Free Space wipe program that does similarly. The cost varies....

Free wipe downloads

If your interested in completly wiping everything, including drivers and OS, try Ghost Ax. I was lucky enough to come across a copy a while back. I don't know if they are ready commercially though...

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Thank you Thaylok.
I went to the site (Free wipe downloads) and downloaded data eraser and it worked great !! When I tried to restore my files they all had different names and were 0000 out. Thank you again I spent all day yesterday trying to find a program that worked, and this worked fine and it was free. Now I can give my computer to my son and not worry about my deleted data being recovered.

You were worried about your son doing this?

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no!
just not sure where the computer would end up.
he has a tendancy to give away things and when he gets ready to get rid of it at least my data won't be on it. anyway computers are being throw away every day and people don't think about the retreiveable data on it, i just wanted everything to be clean, Not worried about my son. just being careful that's all.

I'm happily paranoid.. err Cautious. When you go to get rid of that computer, I recommend using DBAN (D????'s Boot And Nuke). It's free, and can be ran from floppy or a bootable CD. I use it to wipe whole hard drives before we send them to property. From there, they are crushed, but like you, we know that we must get rid of any important data. Working at a university that had 35000 SSNs / NAMEs stolen from computers, we work to remove any personal data.
Glad you found something to do what you needed.

Yes I have downloaded Dban and the next time I get rid of a computer or reformat I will use it. I just wanted something to clear my data so that it could not be easily recover. Of course locks are only ment to keep honest people (honest) from temptation. But a theif will do whatever it takes to get what they want. So if somebody really wants your data they will get it. But these days things are so easy to get. I could'nt beleive how easy it was to retrieve my delete files. All it tool was a free download. That is really scary. I see computers throw away all the time and I myself have done so as well. I am trying to become more security conscience. I am always so please at the help given. This is a wonderful site and I love it. thanks again

by the way what did you mean when you said, "I'm happily paranoid.. err Cautious"

Sounds like a great program, and deffinately a good idea. I totally agree what the man is trying to say. I wouldn't want my information being laying out there either. Also with all the people that don't know about really what people can get off computers these days I feel for them, because they could be ones to get burned someday.

He means that's he's so cautious that people might consider him paranoid.

I recommend a program called Eraser. It gets the job done.

Eraser - Free secure data erase tool to wipe files on your hard drive

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