Clean disk security program. It's free. Once installed, check all the boxes except the clean file slack space (business version only) and the program will do the rest. Choose the 7 pass option on the bottom. This is enough where nothing can be recovered. The clean standard free space takes a while so you might not want to run that until you are going to be away from the computer for a while.
firstenrgy
They can detect anything even with all this fancy software. Best bet is two have a hot swapable drive. Pull out the one drive and drill repeated and physically destroy the drive. Other than that they can detect anything, trust me.
I was arresrted for fraud. The DEA claims I fraudulantly accuired medication from drug stores. 4 months after the arrest my attorney was sent printouts of what was (allagedly) found on computers in my house. The printouts included Email addresses exactly like displayed on my monitor when they were typed. They were from the life of the computer (new and old shit). It made me look like a thug.
Thanks for the information. I think I will throw my hard drive in the neighbors yard.
They found drugs, syringes and an assult weapon in the search. Makes me look like a gun slinging drug dealer. I'm looking at no jail time. First offense.
actually, there are hacker programs just for this situation. A friend of mine is giving me a disk to load. When you type a code, everything is erased that only a PROFESSIONAL hacker could find, but if set a password, when the computer turns on, and someone types the wrong password twice, the whole harddrive gets fried! I've seen it works so I know it does!
goliath.jr Is exactly right. Even removing the partition and beating it with a hammer will not protect you. If you need to get rid of the information then you need to remove the drive and get dispose of it.
Let me make this clearer. NOTHING will keep the technicians at IBM Labs from removing your disk in a clean room from the drive, removing the layers one at a time, and retreiving any information that was ever put on the drive. NOTHING.
The last time I talked to them it was approx $10,000 an hour with a two hour minimum. But that was two years ago so the price may have changed.
Your local prosecutor probably won't spend that much time and money to do this. But it CAN be done.