tempnexus
Premium
join:1999-08-11
Boston, MA
| Best software to remove traces off the pc?
I was wondering what is the best software to remove traces of activity of a laptop without wipeing the whole system (leaveing OS and all other programs intact).
I have to handdown this laptop and get a new one so I do not want them to know the mails and the programs I runned since some of the security apps are not corporate (we are forced to use Symantec and I use KAV etc).
Thanks. |
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Sir Raleigh
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-31
Raleigh, NC | Eraser will do what you want.
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I used to know all this stuff! |
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tempnexus
Premium
join:1999-08-11
Boston, MA
| Yes but You have to specify exactly where things reside etc but how do I know that I will catch all the OS nooks and crannies including registry nooks and crannies? I want something that knows to clean this and clean that, what nooks and crannies that temps are kept in and at (including reg). |
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Sir Raleigh
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-31
Raleigh, NC
| I don't think you'll find anything that can do that.
The only way you can be sure everything is gone is to reformat and reinstall the OS.
If you want to make sure that absolutely everything is gone you will need to put in a new hard drive.
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I used to know all this stuff! |
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anony101
@bellsouth.net
| reply to tempnexus
said by tempnexus  :Yes but You have to specify exactly where things reside etc but how do I know that I will catch all the OS nooks and crannies including registry nooks and crannies? I want something that knows to clean this and clean that, what nooks and crannies that temps are kept in and at (including reg). ccleaner |
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kw
Premium
join:2004-06-12 | ccleaner is good, but as previously stated...a format is the only thing that'll completely wipe everything out. |
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bettywont
Premium
join:2004-09-11
Montreal, QC | reply to tempnexus
I found www.nirsoft.net will delete your protected passwords and alot more.
Your AV will complain-just ignore it and proceed.As usual
read everything.Have no fear it will do the job needed |
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mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
Premium,MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON
| reply to tempnexus
said by tempnexus :I was wondering what is the best software to remove traces of activity of a laptop without wipeing the whole system (leaveing OS and all other programs intact). The following link will provide you with the solution you're looking for:
»itexpertoncall.com/tips/hot/203.html
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David Mozer
IT-Expert on Call
Information Technology for Home and Business |
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bettywont
Premium
join:2004-09-11
Montreal, QC | Nice site itexpertoncall.com/tips/hot/203.html
Whats the difference between yours and Crap Cleaner?
Excluding the price? |
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mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
Premium,MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON
| said by bettywont :Whats the difference between yours and Crap Cleaner? Based on my field experiences the solutions I place [and recommend] in my website I know work and work the way that I expect (and want) them to work.
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David Mozer
IT-Expert on Call
Information Technology for Home and Business |
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Sir Raleigh
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-31
Raleigh, NC
| That will do all right for cleaning up what IE or possibly other browsers leave behind, but what about all those temporary files other applications leave scattered all over your hard drive?
There are log files, tmp files, bak files ~(some name) files... I could go on and on, but I don't have the time to list them all.
A format and clean install is the minimum I'd do, then using Eraser to wipe the rest of the empty space on the drive.
A new hard drive is the only way to be absolutely sure no sensitive data is left behind.
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I used to know all this stuff! |
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EGeezer
Go Bobcats
Premium
join:2002-08-04
Country!
 ·Callcentric
 ·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T CallVantage
| reply to tempnexus
As others have suggested, there are lots of tools that can erase history, passwords etc. Using eraser to wipe free space will also address recovery using Undelete etc.
The difficulty comes with your requirement to remove all traces of previously installed applications. As many will confirm, uninstall leaves traces in the form of files and registry entries which are largely undocumented and practically impossible to isolate and remove. Even if you had provided a complete list of applications(which you didn't), identifying specific locations, files and entries would be time consuming, difficult and unreliable.
Additionally, if your email is handled through a local server, deleting those from your PC will still leave whatever logs, files or backups the company mail server might retain. Any other files that might be replicated on login/logout from a domain could also be stored on a server.
Your best bet to meet your requirements is the one that you have indicated is unacceptable - removing partitions, wiping the drive and re-imaging or reloading to company specs. That'll take care of objects on the PC, but not ones stored or replicated elsewhere.
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6EQUJ5 |
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SpannerITWks
Premium
join:2005-04-22
| reply to tempnexus
One of the Forensic Toolkits " might " do the job, if you know what/where to look. A bit time consuming though, and a lot of the time they just don't find things the're supposed to !
Spanner
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I Only Know What I Know, But I'm Learning all The Time - Stay Safe - Spanner intheWorks
/SpannerITWks |
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PS32
join:2004-01-28
| reply to tempnexus
CCleaner
»www.ccleaner.com/
System Mechanic
»www.iolo.com/
Cleans hidden areas in hard drive.
btw traces gets back once you are on internet  . |
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Alphalutra1
join:2005-10-06
127.0.0.1
clubs: | »dban.sourceforge.net/ then reinstall the OS is the only option IMO.
Cheers
Alphalutra1 |
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mozerd
Light Will Pierce The Darkness
Premium,MVM
join:2004-04-23
Nepean, ON
| reply to Sir Raleigh
said by Sir Raleigh :That will do all right for cleaning up what IE or possibly other browsers leave behind, but what about all those temporary files other applications leave scattered all over your hard drive? My recommended solution does a lot -- all you have to do is to carefully read the link I provided and you will see that much is covered.
Why You Need Tracks Eraser Pro?
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David Mozer
IT-Expert on Call
Information Technology for Home and Business |
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Sir Raleigh
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-31
Raleigh, NC
| Most of these track eraser-type softwares only delete the files on a hard drive. These files can easily be recovered with any kind of undelete application.
This is not a secure destruction of files on a hard drive.
Also, no single, or even the use of many applications will find all traces left behind because no author can know where these tracks will be laid on every computer ever built.
They can easily be found by simply browsing a hard drive or using an undelete application.
I still contend that the only way for a computer to be totally secure from unwanted data being left behind is to completely format the drive and reinstall the OS, or even better, replace the hard drive altogether.
The cost of a new hard drive these days is significantly less than the damage that can be done with the data that's left behind by trying to save a buck or two.
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I used to know all this stuff! |
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Alphalutra1
join:2005-10-06
127.0.0.1
clubs:
| Sir Raleigh, reinstalling the OS only puts one wipe of data over the old ones. Running those ``erase-type softwares'' actually puts between 3 to 35 randomnly generated data over the files from complex algorithms. You would need the NSA to even get a brief glimpse of the data, and they probably couldn't even recover it. So I don't see how reformatting is superior to D-Ban and other softwares, and buying a new drive is not necessary since my nine passes on the hard drive with DoD approved methods is not going to be foiled. If you want to truly be secure, run D-BAN, then drill through the hard-drive, then run a magnet across it, then use a torch to burn it, then feed it through a meat grinder, then use it as a sponge, then use it as toilet paper, then finally throwing it away. 
Alphalutra1 |
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Sir Raleigh
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-31
Raleigh, NC | Okay... I yield. |
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jimkyle
Btrieve Guy
Premium
join:2002-10-20
Oklahoma City, OK
 ·AT&T Southwest
| Not to flog a moribund equine, but I recently had a near-disaster involving two logical partitions on an 80-MB drive. They became unreadable when something overwrote the extended partition's logical-partition table. Fortunately, PC Inspector's File Recovery program managed to find the root directories of both drives and copy them over to an external drive so I did not lose my data. I then rebuilt the logical partitions using Microsoft's FDISK, and reformatted the rebuilt partitions.
Now to the point of this posting: out of curiosity, I ran the File Recovery program again on the freshly formatted partitions, and again was able to recover all the content of both. The reformatting simply created a root directory and rebuilt the FATs; it did not remove any traces of the previous content.
Since I was primarily interested in getting the drives back into action, not removing traces of prior use, I did not try using DBAN or ERASER on them. I'm confident, though, that had I done so the traces would have vanished beyond recovery.
The reformatting did make the drives appear to be empty so far as Explorer or the command line were concerned, so might be adequate for the OP's need -- but traces did remain. This was on FAT32 systems under Win98SE and it's possible that NTFS might react differently, but based on more than 20 years' experience digging into the internals of Microsoft systems, I doubt it very much... |
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