[pjannke]

I have personal information on my computer. I would like to permanently delete these personal files so that they can not be recovered. For the most part they are word and excel documents but there are also some PDF's. The operating system is Windows 2000, but I also may do this on my home computer which runs XP.

In addition to deleting the files is there a way to delete the history of the files being there. I am not sure if this is an issue, but I would like to remove any trace of the files including if I had opened them, saved them, and/or moved them from one drive to another.

Hope this is enough information.

Thanks,

Paul

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Edit:completely useless information and rather presumptuous about the OP's intent

[wendy k. walker]

Edit:completely useless information and rather presumptuous about the OP's intent

[rshaffer61]

DBAN is not the best for what you want to do. I misread the information.

Reason for edit as stated above:
I stand corrected and apologize for the misinformation.

Edited by rshaffer61, 23 July 2009 - 01:15 PM.

[stettybet0]

Whoa there! DBAN will completely erase everything on the hard drive, including the operating system! I think the OP only wants to erase certain files. In this case, a program like Sure Delete would be what they want.

[pjannke]

I bought iolo's Drive Scrubber. Will that do the trick? I am happy to buy another one if it does not or if there is a better one out there. I was also thinking of using tfc and/or ccleaner to clean up all my temp files/history. Is this worth it?

Thanks

[rshaffer61]

Drive Scrubber will erase your drive completely
TFC will clean up any temp file you presently have on your system
CCleaner is not recommended by GTG. We do not advise to use any Registry cleaner.

[hawklord]

spybot search & destroy has a secure file shredder in the advanced options under tools,

seems to get missed all the time - poor old spybot

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[rshaffer61]

Thank you Hawklord

[stettybet0]

Sure Delete does the same thing and has a much smaller filesize and memory footprint. If the OP already had SpyBot installed, it would be a good advice (ironically, the same advice wendy k. walker had posted before her post was removed), but if not, Sure Delete would be the simpler choice. Once again, you can get Sure Delete here.

[hawklord]

......... I am not sure if this is an issue, but I would like to remove any trace of the files including if I had opened them, saved them, and/or moved them from one drive to another.....

start > run and type gpedit.msc then press enter,

this will bring the group policy editor up,
in here you can make your w2k more secure,

use the + and - on the left, single click to highlight and open the policies on the right,
double click a policy (or right click > properties) in the right pane for more information

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