When we dispose of a computer or a laptop or any kind of device, we must ensure it is securely deleted.
This section is under review
These methods work
- Using a secure disk eraser like DBAN
- Using whole disk encryption
None of the following methods work.
Ordinary methods of deleting files, do not delete the data, they just mark the space where the files are as being "available for re-use".
- Moving to the wastebasket and then emptying the basket
- Using the DELETE command (on the command line)
- formatting the disk
It is easy to un-erase data after using any or all of the three methods listed above. Your data is not securely erased as it can can recovered simply, by a hacker, or by someone using easily available data recovery software.