download a zero fill utility
install onto bootable floppy and make sure it boots
format all drives
fdisk to one large drive
zero fill ten times
fdisk to working configuration
re-install system
or
delete all your apps and anything none windows apart from DB
write an app to write random files to the HD in DarkBasic over and over (placeing them in the root drive and any other drives you may have used), make sure they are all called ERASERxxx.eras since no other files on your system should be called that (check with find files first tho)
the system and DB will be installed and never move about on the hd after the first defrag, so anything under them will be either blank disk or very old data
DB will fill up the hd and windows will tell you you have run out of HD, call up the dos console (you might have to erase a few files first) and type ERASE ERASER*.eras, you may also need to switch to the other pations on you machine and do the same, just type the drive name followed by a colon eg D: swaps you to drive D:
this all takes time, do this ten times or so, the only parts of the HD that will not have been written to by now will be
the section of disk with DB on it and the program file you made
the section of disk that holds the swap file (but the swap file moves around a little and does it`s own version of overwriting the hd with "random" data)
the section of disk with the BAM and bootsector (files don`t write here..unless they are virrii)
the section of disk with the OS on it (has been there from the day the PC was "born" (more or less) and most likley overwrites blank sections of disk
the first option is the better one, but the second option willl trash residual data so thoroughly it would be realy hard to find anything solid, just the odd soundbite maybe, but they would take some finding.
just a thought, how do they find the files on the drive?, do they look for filenames? or sequences of mp3 data?, they would have to automaticaly search for those, so if the MP3 was compressed to say FM quality, then the search software couldn`t match the data with what it thought the song would look like, since the number sequences making up the audio would be different (you could also zip and encrypt your files maybe).
Mentor.
IMPORTANT NOTE: a zero fill utility writes 1`s and then 0`s to every sector of the hd that it is possible to get the heads too, they are intended to remove realy obstinate virri that can`t be killed any other way or cure serious drive faults, you must let the program finish before you try to use the HD again, otherwise you will find it unusable, also make sure you have the correct app for your drive, do not use a seagate app on a fujitsu drive unless you know it is safe to do so, some zero fill utilities make assumptions about the type of drive they are working with, and you will wind up with an expensive paperweight if you try to use them on the wrong type of drive
System spec : Pentium 3.0Ghz, 512MB DDR, 2x160Gb HD (using icewave hd coolers ), DVD RW/CD RW (all modes), multimedia front panel, 6 way surround sound, ATI radeon 9800Pro 128mb.
