I recently wanted to get rid of some confidential files from my hard drive so I did the following:
1) deleted them using the standard delete function in windows,
2) filled the hard drive with junk files (old excel and .dat files) at least once (but I think I did it twice),
3) reformatted the hard drive and re-installed the operating system
4) filled the hard drive with more junk files (a different type this time - a collection of ms office documents and videos)
5) used the standard delete function in windows to clear that lot so the hard drive was 'clear' again.
So my question is: Does that sound sufficient to remove the possibility of the confidential files ever being recovered (or at least make it very, very difficult to do so)?
Since doing the above, I've seen programmes which can fill the hard drive with junk data to erase confidential documents and I'm wondering if I should have used one of those or whether they essentially do the same thing as I've done (I'm assuming most people don't have 80 gigs of junk data to fill their hard drive like I do!).
Thanks in advance!
1) deleted them using the standard delete function in windows,
2) filled the hard drive with junk files (old excel and .dat files) at least once (but I think I did it twice),
3) reformatted the hard drive and re-installed the operating system
4) filled the hard drive with more junk files (a different type this time - a collection of ms office documents and videos)
5) used the standard delete function in windows to clear that lot so the hard drive was 'clear' again.
So my question is: Does that sound sufficient to remove the possibility of the confidential files ever being recovered (or at least make it very, very difficult to do so)?
Since doing the above, I've seen programmes which can fill the hard drive with junk data to erase confidential documents and I'm wondering if I should have used one of those or whether they essentially do the same thing as I've done (I'm assuming most people don't have 80 gigs of junk data to fill their hard drive like I do!).
Thanks in advance!