Help needed for secure data erasure on a CD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tim Walters
  • Start date Start date
T

Tim Walters

I don't know how CDs differ from HDs. Can anyone recommend:

1. a good program for securely erasing data on a CD;

2. a good program for scanning a CD which is partially damaged.

3. the name of any other ng where I could ask these questions.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Tim
 
You could only erase data on re-writable cd's. If you don't want the
information on the cd to fall in unauthorized hands break the cd in half
and throw it in the trash can... or the wood stove!

John
 
John said:
You could only erase data on re-writable cd's. If you don't want the
information on the cd to fall in unauthorized hands break the cd in half
and throw it in the trash can... or the wood stove!
Click to expand...

Or the shredder. Many office shredders have slots designed for CD's. Remember
that shopped up polycarbonate can have lots of nice sharp peices.

Incase anyone suggests it, do not microwave recordable CD's, unless you
particularly want to turn the cyanine based dye into fun and potentially
dangerous gas. Besides, they smell really bad. Ditto throwing it into a fire.

However, microwaving the dozen AOL CDs you receive in the post each month (one
at a time, on top of a mug half-filled with water) for about 8 seconds on full
power, is definitely recommended, as is sending them back to AOL afterwards.


Securely erasing data on CD-RW is a different matter.

Doing a full erase, rather than a TOC/PMA/Pregap blank (often called 'Quick
erase') will overwrite the data. DVD+-RW similar. DVD-RAM results will vary
depending on the filesystem used on the disk. If FAT32, you'll need to
overwrite the file's blocks prior to deleting the file. If it's UDF/ISO (and I
cannot understand why anyone would want to format DVD-RAM as UDF or ISO9660)
then it's the same as DVD+-RW.
 
Back
Top