Secure Delete: what is it, and do I need it?

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Leo, I am not paranoid about what is on my computer, I am just scared all that stuff is slowing the computer down and filling it up.
we show and breed Shar-Pei. I can hear again from someone who bought a puppy 8-10 years ago, put their name in Search, and pull up 7 copies of every email they sent me and I sent them. And they weren't anywhere I could find them.
My computer blew in 2005, and March 2008, and we got a new one each time, with the geeks transferring as much as they could.
When I wrote to someone about a puppy, obviously I am including pictures. Surely this fills up my hard drive! Thanks, Susan Lauer

Does sdelete work with Vista? Thanks.

I use a free program called Eraser. It will securely wipe the free space on your media or a single file or folder or mulitple files/folders. Plus it has a shell context menu. So you can right click on the file or folder and erase it. It also has a scheduling feature. You can choose your erase method from 1 pass to 35 passes or create your own method. It works on XP and Vista and comes in a 32 bit or 64 bit version.

Acronis True Imgage Home also alows you to securly "wipe" your files.

I have one question though. Generally speaking which erase method should a person use? There are so many out there from the US DOD 7 pass to Gutman's 35 passes. Which would be the best one to use?

Thanks in advance to everyone who answers the question.

To everyone that requires secure delete use a much better software as KILLDISK or Erasedisk to achieve the results you want.

hi leo,

i'll try to overwritten data several times to hdd.. but it take long time to complete.. do u have any suggestion how I can shred hdd quickly but securely?..

thanks

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