Question about computers

[Face]

Hi guys,

Just a quick question for those of you good on computers....
Being a medical student, I have some files about patients written up on my computer. I need to know a way to delete these permanently (i.e not just remove them from your recycle bin, apparently these are then stored as magnetic data). Is there software for this or do I need to do something else. All help and replies appreciated, thank you.

[BBAddict]

They aren't really intenionally stored as magnetic data. To grossly simplify things, cpu data is stored as either a 0 or a 1 where these are the magnetic orientations of domains within the drive. When you erase this, you are changing the orientation of that domain, but there can be some residual orientation that the computer wouldn't read as a 1, but an expert can look at the small "deflections" in the domains to recover lost/deleted data. This is not easy and fails a lot of the time even when people want to get at it.
This is one program that a colleague recommended. Apparently you can triple erase-probably just minimizes that small residual orientation in the domain such that even data recovery experts cant detect it or it is too small to be statistically significant.
http://www.ontrack.com/dataeraser/

That's about all I know. good luck!

[Face]

Thanks BBaddict, I read somewhere that the only way to ensure its cleared and unrecoverable is by multiply overwriting it. What can you tell me about this? Is there any software that can do this for me?

[BENCH355ANIMAL]

Go to www.download.com, type eraser 5.7 in the search menu, and dowload Eraser 5.7. It's free, and it allows you to remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times. You can choose to either empty your recycle bin, or ERASE it. It's a good piece of software.

[BBAddict]

I would try that. It's a pretty easy concept. As long as you rewrite over the same domains/sectors several times, it should permanently render previous information unrecoverable.

[Face]

Damn bench355, you really have your finger on the button. I jus checked up that program you linked me, and its reputed to be the best of these products in a recent review, not even taking into account the fact that its free, an awesome find, thanx bro! Do you personally use it?