Secure File Deletion
I have a relatively new computer after my old Dell laptop failed while under warranty. Before returning my old laptop to Dell I decided to securely delete my hard drive to make my personal information unrecoverable.Secure file deletion is important because data can be recovered from even reformatted hard drives using tools like the Forensics Toolkit (FTK). However, most people don’t even bother reformatting their hard drive before donating their computer or throwing it away.
At any rate, I found a great secure deletion tool: Darik’s Boot and Nuke?or DBAN. DBAN is Linux boot disk that writes random zeros and ones over the entire hard disk according to secure deletion algorithms published by the US Department of Defense and Canada’s RCMP. DBAN also supports the Gutmann algorithm even though it is considered overkill by most experts.
If you want to securely delete a single file rather than an entire hard drive or partition, try GNU’s shred