Stogie can you tell me why you would need to do more than one pass in a wipe? I thought once data was written over then it was gone? Is there multiple passes just in case a previous pass missed a spot, somehow?

 

Here's how I understand it and correct me if I'm wrong Stogie. All data is stored in the form of 0 or 1. Sometimes, once a sector is overwritten, the previous state of a sector can be read, hence recovering the data. But then again, you'd have to recover every sector that makes of a file(s). So, even though its overwritten there's a tiny chance you could recover from a one pass wipe, although a very small percentage. One of the DoD standards, writes all 1's on one pass, then all 0's one pass then writes 1's and 0's at random on the third pass.

 

One pass is enough now. Older drives were vulnerable to scanning with an electron microscope for the "shadow" left behind by the actual ferrous material that magnetically represented the "on" or "off" state, but newer drives are much more efficient and do not have this problem. Thus, a single wipe is good enough. You want to wipe "Gutmann" style? Go for it.

 

Stogie

That is not true.

I got back 90% of the data from one drive that had a single pass done to it. They managed to stop the wipe after 1 pass when they realized they did it to the wrong drive.

Sledgehammer is the most efficient way to prevent someone from ever reading the drive again, plus it has the added benefit of being very good stress relief.

 

^what'd they use to get the data back after the first wipe had been done?

 

ontrack getdataback ntfs

 

I have two quick questions that maybe someone will be able to help me out with.

- Every so often my machine will freeze up for approx 10 seconds, and then be completely fine. It doesnt really bother me because it does not happen often, but I am wondering why that might be happening.

- Since installing Win 7 I have not had any auto-correct stuff showing up for spelling in webpages etc. Before, if I made a spelling mistake (ex typing a post for AZ), it would underline in red. Now,...nothing. AFAIK, the setting is on in my browser (Firefox). I am running no-script with firefox, but that was not a problem before (and I would guess isnt now either). I dont think it is working with IE either.

Any thoughts?

 

I can't tell you what the problem is with your first thing without more info. I'd open task manager up and keep an eye on that so when it freezes you can see if your processor usage is spiking and then see what process is causing it. If it's not it could be a hardware issue like bad optical drive or your IDE controller driver may be in PIO mode. Could a problem with your AV software hogging your cpu.

IE8 doesn't have a spell checker and your spell checker problem isn't related to Windows 7. Try reinstalling FF. Or just switch to google chrome!

 

Then the actual wipe had not occurred. Plain and simple. I know how Ontrack works and it's no magic.

If the single pass had completed (don't trust the little percent marker... Let the entire process finish) you would not be recovering any data. Use a tool like BCWipe or Eraser to do a single pass wipe, let it fully finish, and then use the Ontrack tool. You will get bupkiss.


There are commercial drive degaussers available for complete demagnetization quickly and efficiently if necessary.

 

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I did a search and found that I just needed to install a dictionary for FF (didn't think of that before,... thought it was win 7 related cause FF always did that for me in XP ).


Is google chrome better in some way than FF?

 

I prefer the 308 method myself. Just as effective on both counts

 

yes, it's faster and much more secure.

 

Let the flame wars begin.

Firefox > Chrome in my book any day

 

please find me one benchmark where firefox is faster than chrome.

 

All in fun.

I use Firefox at work and Chrome at home. I like them both but prefer Firefox, one because I've use it so long(makes me biased) and I've gotten used to all the extensions I have.

However, I'll definitely give Chrome the nod on machines that aren't so powerful(netbooks, older XP machines). It runs better on them but on a robust system, i don't think you can tell the difference. They are both very fast.

 

Meh, I might give chrome a try to see what it is like.

 

I prefer the user experience of FF over chrome. Nano seconds faster response times are not important to me.

 

I just like how clean chrome is set up without having to customize the menus and buttons, but on the other hand I have never really used Firefox extensions.

 

I prefer chrome cause of it's minimalist UI. Ff is gaudy ie 6 looking. It looks nice but for some reason they think people want an ugly look in windows

 

FYI, the RTM build of Office 2010 is now available for Technet and MSDN subscribers

 

I just ordered a 500 GB HD for my MacBook Pro. Planning on dual booting 10.6 and Win 7 Pro 32bit finally. Plus, I bought a Firewire enclosure for my old HD, so I can boot to that if I need 10.5.8.

 

Why 32bit instead of 64?

 

^get 64 Bit Windows 7...

 

Damn you Stunna.

 

 

I got a free 64bit and 32bit license through school. I installed the 64bit license on my fiance's laptop because she has 4 GB of RAM. My MBP only has 3 anyway.

 

ok.

 

Hmm, but I do have access to 64bit "Chinese Simplified" ... Anyone know if that includes the English language too?

 

Don't know...Better learn Chinese just to be safe....

 

 

Hmmmm....The volume licensing service center sight is crapping out on me every time I try to sign on. I wonder if maybe O2K10 showed up there as well even though it was supposed to be another three weeks. Or maybe there's just a few million dorks like me trying to sign on to see if it did. Or maybe someone just posted something about it on Fark.

 

I think Jalopnik made an article about it.

 

also an FYI you might want to skip 64-bit version since all 32bit macros and add-ins wont work with 64 bit soooooo......

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...ffice.14).aspx

 

for me i should be fine with 32bit at home ?

 

32 bit office yes. Windows 7 I'd go 64 bit

 

I know of no real benefit of 64bit office except it can handle larger files. so if you have excel files over 4gb in size then you might want it. I'm sure the excel file you have that catalogs your porn collection is over 4gb alone so you might want to look into it.

 

Ok I need a favor from someone. My new Macbook Pro arrives tomorrow and I want to put 7 ultimate on there. I got my copy and key from a school website and I'm having one hell of a time making a bootable DVD out of it. side note: I SUCK at making bootable USB drives or DVDs, IDK why but they never work for me (except Wintoflash).

So the favor I'm asking is can someone make an ISO of an 64 bit Upgrade copy of 7 and upload it to depositfiles.com and send me the link so I can download it? I don't care what flavor as long as it's 64bit and is the upgrade version not full version.

The macbook pro cannot boot windows from a USB flash drive so it has to be DVD and I can't seem to figure out how to make a bootable dvd out of the files I have. bootable USB drive, sure I can do that (using wintoflash) but DVD that's a different story.

 

Here are a couple links that offer a down-loadable ISO.
http://techpp.com/2009/11/11/downloa...ownload-links/

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/10...udent-upgrade/

Those should have a 64-bit upgrade iso that you can use with your student key.

Also, I use nLite for making OS ISO's. You can load all the drivers you need into the image, and whatever hotfixes or service packs you want and they will streamline into the install.