when I delete a partition do fragments still remain?

teen-sex · Jul 2, 2011, 04:25 PM

Or is the whole disk completely cleared off?

mkk · Jul 2, 2011, 04:34 PM

When you delete the partition the data is still there, just not accessible by normal means. A drive has to be wiped across all sectors before the data is safely gone from the hands of anyone with basic recovery software. It can be a good idea to do that before handing the drive over to anyone else, like when selling it. There are many useful tools for this, like the free version of Active KillDisk. In some cases a single pass may not be enough, but for regular harddrives it usually is.

Judas · Jul 2, 2011, 08:24 PM

what mkk said...

alternatively for some people.... well i'd say most people..... using the bootable Disk diagnostics for the manufacturer of the drive usually provides a "write 0's to disk" or "full erase" functionality. This is essentially a Low Level Format which works reliably..

Course depending on the drive and interface not to mention size, this could take sometimes hours to complete. Recently had to do a 2tb WD Green drive, and the sucker took almost a full 2 days to complete without interuption, imo rediculious.

The Hitachi drive i did recently was 80gb and took a little over 2 hours (it was a 2.5inch laptop drive though)

I know my WD Black 640gb drives took a little under 3 hours for a full Zero write.

Matth · Jul 2, 2011, 11:49 PM

All hard disk deletions of any kind simply "forget" the position of existing data, which can then be found (if you're lucky) by recovery programs.

To actually remove it, it needs to be overwritten - once to remove from simple recovery, and multiple times (though using ALL 35 Gutman patterns is overkill, as current data densities leave little in the way of "fringe areas", unlike older drives) to foil forensic recovery. Dariq's boot and nuke (DBAN) is a useful tool for sanitising used hard drives.
Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing

PATA/SATA drives may also support a secure erase command.
CMRR - Secure Erase

Jul 2, 2011, 04:25 PM	#1
teen-sex thank you for smoking... Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Baltimore Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	when I delete a partition do fragments still remain? Or is the whole disk completely cleared off?

Jul 2, 2011, 04:34 PM	#2
mkk Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 4,490 Rep Power: 132 System Specs	Re: when I delete a partition do fragments still remain? When you delete the partition the data is still there, just not accessible by normal means. A drive has to be wiped across all sectors before the data is safely gone from the hands of anyone with basic recovery software. It can be a good idea to do that before handing the drive over to anyone else, like when selling it. There are many useful tools for this, like the free version of Active KillDisk. In some cases a single pass may not be enough, but for regular harddrives it usually is.

Jul 2, 2011, 11:49 PM	#4
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	Re: when I delete a partition do fragments still remain? All hard disk deletions of any kind simply "forget" the position of existing data, which can then be found (if you're lucky) by recovery programs. To actually remove it, it needs to be overwritten - once to remove from simple recovery, and multiple times (though using ALL 35 Gutman patterns is overkill, as current data densities leave little in the way of "fringe areas", unlike older drives) to foil forensic recovery. Dariq's boot and nuke (DBAN) is a useful tool for sanitising used hard drives. Darik's Boot And Nuke \| Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing PATA/SATA drives may also support a secure erase command. CMRR - Secure Erase __________________ Mary had a little lamb, Her father shot it dead Now Mary takes her lamb to school, Between two crusts of bread