"David Simpson" spouted,
Like I stated, it was an analogy--oversimpified!!! It was
not to be taken litterally!!!
BTW, glad that Austrialian law is now the legal standard for
the world. In Canada (and I am fairly certain) that in the
States that a password would not stop law enforcement from
prosicuting... If that were the case a simple shutdown and
startup script would foil their efforts...
br1ght
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
| This is incorrect. Low level formatting lays down the
track and sector
| structure on the drive. Unless the correct low level
format program is
| used the track and sector information written does not
correspond to
| that expected by the firmware and so the drive appears
empty. The low
| level format may also need to write track and sector
location data to
| one side of one of the platters.
|
| >Zeroing in effect writes a new track like taking a tool
to
| >the record and removing all the data and setting the
| >existing grooves to factory spec. (on both sides)... it
also
| >overwrites the original data with random 1s and zeros
making
| >it difficult to find the original data (it still hides
below
| >the rewrite that is why it is important if you really
need
| >your data to leave this planet to zero multiple times.. I
| >think the US gov. does this 7x at which they consider it
| >impossible to retrieve... for the average person who is
not
| >into criminal behavior 3x is generally considered more
than
| >adequate).
| >
| It would actually be impossible to retrieve long before
that. The
| major problem is that, using RLL records as most drives
do, the number
| of zeros or ones written in a sequence is limited so the
operation
| must be repeated a number of times to move the limited
length sequence
| to different places on the surface of the disk thus
effectively
| overwriting all the data.
|
| For most people, who are not criminals, it is sufficient
to erase any
| offending files, edit the registry, cache and system files
to remove
| any references and follow all of that with a defrag. If
necessary you
| can copy a number of large directories to different places
on the same
| drive until the drive is full, do a defrag, delete the
copies and
| defrag again. At that point the cost of recovering any
incriminating
| data becomes astronomical as the entire surface of the
disk would have
| to be analysed with special tools.
|
| If you are a criminal using PGP to encrypt the drive would
be
| sufficient as it is illegal for the police to ask for your
password.
| You are not required to give them any information which
_may_
| incriminate you no matter what legislation may be passed.
This is only
| valid in countries which assume the accused is innocent
until proven
| guilty. In countries, such as France, where the reverse
applies your
| options may be different.
|
| >A high level format, (eg format C
cleans the data from
one
| >side of the record but not the other, so someone
| >knowledgeable could (relatively) easily retrieve the data
| >from the bottom side... It is similar in fact to zeroing
but
| >does not overwrite the data... formatting even multiple
| >times does not usually skew the data to the point that
law
| >enforcement cannot retrieve it...
| >
| I do not know what you mean by the bottom side. There is
no such
| thing. The drive write action stores data on both sides of
each
| platter with, in some cases, one surface being reserved
for head
| location accuracy information. The platter is usually made
of
| aluminium with a highly polished layer of rust (iron
oxide) applied to
| both sides.
|
| >Hope that is clearer than mud,
| >
| It was a good effort but not accurate. I hope I have
clarified the
| matter slightly for all.
|
