Untracable entries
 

Hello,
How can i ensure that any info downloaded onto my computer is permenantly erased from my hard drive other than changing hard drive?

You could try this:

Download Simple File Shredder 3.2 - Simple File Shredder is a freeeware secure file deletion - Softpedia

Simple answer... Can't.
Complex answer... Depends on just exactly WHO is interested and just exactly HOW interested.

If... IF... If you have been 'up to something', shall we say mega-naughty, you are a fool to allow any physical remnants of any HDD to be anything other than dust. By 'dust' I mean incinerated and mechanically ground to fine dust.

Don't believe me ?
Check out a very well known specialist data recovery company in Germoney !

(No, I am NOT going to provide a link here.) :blink:

what Urs is saying is that there are data recovery algorithms that go far, far deeper than what one can find commercially....hence the routine followed by 'spies' who do their best to totally destroy data storage devices...remember that spy plane that crashed in China a few years ago?...the crew did the best to totally destroy everything (if I remember correctly they didn't quite pull that off)...

formatting really doesn't do the job....even with overwriting the complete drive a detailed analysis of the drive might reveal things...from what I understand there is a technique which looks 'between' the 'grooves' on a HDD to get data that way...Urs is pretty much calling it correctly here...if you've been a bad, bad boy then total destruction of the HDD is the route to follow...of course, we are referring to the real nasties, not the ones who typically frequent the public filesharing networks...

Untracable data
 

MADMADABSRD,
i only have sensitive documents on my computer that should not be known outside my work place. I resent the acusation of being a pedophille and expect an apology!!:mad::mad:

The Simple File Shredder may be free but it sounds like it is not very secure. In order to completely eliminate a file (short of destroying your disc) the data areas have to be overwritten with random characters multiple times. I belive the DOD standard is seven seperate passes. There are some packages that will do that, but I don't know any free ones. And depending on the speed of your computer and how much data you want to delete, it can take quite a while to do a thourough job.