Make sure All Data is 100% Gone Before Getting Rid of That Old Computer

September 02, 2005 (PRLEAP.COM) Technology News
Just deleting your computer’s files is not enough.

"That only removes the directory points," said Phil Kuhlenbeck, owner of Scrapitout.com, a computer recycling and data destruction service.

Kuhlenbeck went on to say, "Computers could store your files in any of the hard drive "sectors," where it finds space available."

"It’s easy for identity thieves to put your data back together from the scattered sectors, even if it seems the directory no longer exists." Noted Josh Green a data destruction expert with www.scrapitout.com.

According to recent FBI testimony before Congress, identity theft is the fastest-growing crime, nationally.

"People need to understand, deleting stuff or reformatting the disk, is not enough. Your data can still be retrieved. "Until the sectors of the hard drive are 100% overwritten or 100% destroyed, your private information is still in there." Kuhlenbeck pointed out.

While, there are many commercially available programs that will undelete files that claim to wipe all the unallocated space on a disk, leaving the allocated space alone. Yet, during testing with commercially purchased "undelete" software it is possible to see and undelete a large amount of files from free space that was supposed to have been wiped clean.

www.scrapitout.com offers Free "Do It Yourself" instructions on how to destroy your old data click here now: www.scrapitout.com or http://scrapitout.blogspot.com

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