How to Wipe Your Secret Windows Data Completely

If you are thinking of selling your old PC or you may think of donating to any NGO, beware that your data maybe theft by cyber criminal criminals and your confidential information may be leaked. These bad guys are always looking for data from old computers or laptops. You may be become the victim of identity theft and eventually lost heavily because of this small mistake and this leads in the revealing of our various login details, credit card numbers, any personal information and much more to the suspicious person, there is a secure solution for all your worries by using reliable data erasing software

For most of the Windows user, like you and me, the meaning of permanent deletion is deleting data from recycle bin, shift delete or formatting of the drive. This activity only deletes the reference to the file. A delete command simply erases the pointers to files thus making it impossible for the OS to locate the data. The actual 0’s and 1’s aren’t technically erased, it was just hidden from immediate view to an operating system. It can be still present in your hard drive. Let’s explain it in a simpler way, it is like tearing an index page of the book, but the content is still present in the book.

The best way to permanent deletion of data is to overwrite the data contain in hard drive. It can be done by using data erasing software that replace the secret data with random 0’s and 1’s.

Different Data Erasing Techniques:-

There is a slight chance of data recovery even after complete hard drive destruction, may be your secret data is recovered by someone who may misuse that information for later for any suspicious activity.

1) Physical Destruction of Drive – The most easiest and cheapest method of data deletion is a physical destruction, which can be easily done by common instruments which are available in every household. This process is traditionally done even in many advanced countries and a major percentage of the world population are still using this approach. It is a good way to reduce your stress by hammering a hard drive with a nail on a hard drive. Although, this process completely destroys the read-write head, but the chances of data recovery from platter is still possible. Also, this process helps in encouraging E-waste and thus eventually lead to more heaps of waste. It is the easiest way to destroy a large amount of data.

2) Software Overwrite Process – The most advanced and effective way of data deletion which use a powerful algorithm to overwrite the existing data with random 0’s and 1‘s. Some software even uses 3 passes or 7 passes overwriting process, after which there is no chance of data recovery. The advantage of this method is it can be used in your home/office/small organization/shops with no theft of your secret data being shared with any suspicious person, which can be shared with anyone by chance when you visit a service center.

3) Magnetic destruction of Drive – It is a process of deleting unwanted magnetic field data stored on a disk drive or other storage media. No matter what data you have, this data destruction scheme fully erased the data, which is out of the reach of data recovery. One limitation of this process is that it need an expert level person to perform a data erasing task.

Need of Data erasing Software

Disk erasing is the most secure way to erase the data from hard disk permanently.

Disk erasing process overwrites the entire hard drive with the binary data (0 or 1). This process typically overwrites MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table and sectors of the hard-drive. MBR is a small program that executes at the time of system booting. It presents in the first sector of the hard disk. So, a software that can access all areas on the hard drive and bypass BIOS and OS would be optimum to perform complete data erasure.

Conclusion: - While it was totally a user choice which method he/she want to adopt to securely erase their sensitive data, but as a responsible citizen of the country, it will be our responsibility to use an environment-friendly process with minimum E-waste.

Best Way to Erase your Sensitive Hard Drive Data

If you are planning to sell your old desktop/laptop to anyone, make double sure that your personal data can be completed erased before handed over to anyone. Most of our PC/laptops contain bank account details, personal images, important documents, etc. which are a bit secret to us. Most of the people thought that a shift delete or formatting will permanently delete their data. Shift delete command only erases the pointers, as a result it was impossible for an operating system to access the data. The old data is not fully gone until the area of the disk is overwritten by new information. Any person with deep expertise in data recovery can retrieve your data. So, always use recommended method before handed over your hard drive or machine to anyone.

There are many ways to completely destroy your data before disposing it: -

1) Third party software i.e., Software Approach

2) Physical Destruction Method

3) Hardware or Mechanical Method

Erasing a data with the help of data erasing software is by far the best and most suitable method. Also, this method is environment-friendly and hard drive can be reusable again for future purposes. There are many software available online which can be used with the help of bootable USB/CD’s to securely delete our sensitive data. When we erase a data, we overwrite all data on it with 0’s, 1’s, or a random mix of 0’s and 1’s. The overwriting process is done on every sector of hard drive. The multiple overwriting process, leads to no trace of old data left in our storage device which eventually makes us secure from data theft.

One Software, which I want to specify here is Stellar’s Data Recovery – BitRaser because of its all-round and secure performance. This Software is designed by the team of experienced data recovery experts. So, you will be completely satisfied that your data can’t be recovered by any methods by anyone.

It is based on international erasing standards. BitRaser uses a number of different algorithms like DoD and NIST. With the help of this technology, the data is securely wiped. The more time it overwrites the data, lesser will be the chances to recover it back. It is also helpful in erasing internet activities like cookies, history and saved passwords. Also, multiple storage devices are wiped at once by using BitRaser software. Erasing Solid State Drives is also possible using this software. Just select the number of hard drives to erase, it will work efficiently by saving your lots of time. So, it was designed by keeping in mind the need of the home user as well as large organization like banks and defense.

The speed of this powerful data erasing software is excellent. No matter, how complex your data is, it perform efficient results with high success rate. Also, BitRaser provide you permanent Data wipe certification, which assures you and gives trust to you that your data is never ever traced back. Easily supports erasures of all drives – IDE /ATA, SCSI, SAS, SATA Hard drive, USB Hard drive. Enterprise edition of BitRaser is capable of booting multiple hard drives with the help of remote LAN by centralized process management which control and manage erasure over a network.

Technical Specification of Software:-

Operating System – Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP

Hardware Requirements

•    Processor –x86 or x64 RAM / Pentium Class Processor

•    USB Port – 2.0/3.0

•    Minimum 256 MB RAM

•    Hard Disk – 40 MB of free space

With the use of Windows data wiping tool, you can prevent identity theft by any unwanted person, who may misuse for any suspicious activity in future. Also, while other ways of permanent data deletion are also available, but you have to pick the most economical and time-saving approach. Also, it is everyone responsibility to reduce Electronic scrap, as already huge piles of old components are present. Use of environment-friendly data erasure tool while disposing of your IT assets is a good decision.