Sorry Bisso, Neither one actually erase much data - think of it like a file cabinet, someone going in and removing the labels on the folders. It is a little interesting that a 'DOS FORMAT" works differently on a floppy then it does on a hard drive. On a floppy it actually does some low level formatting along with the high level vs a hard drive only gets the high level. High level meaning its just creating the 'structure' or table of contents (vtoc) but regardless most of the data is easily recoverable even if the hard drive is fdisked and formatted. Low Level formatting actually tries to write to every sector on every track which is a little better (and very slow) but since it only writes it once, modern tools can be used to 'lift' the data off. That make any sense ? If your really interested in data recovery concepts, Scott Mueller has an excellent book out titled 'Ques Guide to Data Recovery'...Oh and FWIW, I use GDISK set for seven passes and I cannot recover anything after that :) Brad
From: "Bassam ALHUSSEIN" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Dan Williamson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 2:38 PM Subject: Re: Disk Wiping Utilities > I am not sure but I thought that a format then fdisk would do the job > ....wouldn't it ??? > correct me guys ..plz > > Bisso > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Dan Williamson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 12:14 AM > Subject: Disk Wiping Utilities > > > > > > > > I am looking for a good utility to erase all hard drives > > in a machine to a DOD standard. I would prefer a > > FREE utility as this is a government agency and I try > > to keep costs down. > > > > I have read that Norton Wipeinfo, BCWipe and > > several other programs wipe only the known > > partitions. I need a tool that will wipe EVERYTHING ! > > > > TIA > > Dan > > > > > >
