• All personal data should be deleted from computers before they are donated to abc-cde. *
• Personal data not deleted from computers donated to the Dwight’s Computers for Kids program, is deleted by abc-cde. This may require replacing the programs that were on the computer, including the software with license agreements to stay with the computer. *
• While it is difficult to restore deleted data, under certain conditions, some data can be recovered by trained technicians with the proper tools. *
• One way to remove data, is by reformatting the hard drive. With this procedure all programs and personal data are deleted.
• Or, the hard drive can be repartitioned. Partitioning deletes all files and programs, including the system files, boot files and other start up files. After a partition, the hard drive can not be used to store data until it has been formatted since the procedure deletes the formatting.
• It is extremely difficult to recover data after a partition change or a hard drive format. But because evidence of all data is not completely removed, some data of questionable value, may be recovered by data recovery companies, with skilled technicians and proper expensive equipment. *
• Overwriting Data. The information on a hard drive is stored in clusters. Most of the time information clusters on a hard drive are not completely filled when data is written or overwritten. While the remaining bits of uncovered area in the cluster may or may not be useful information, unlike the overwritten area, it will remain accessible to recovery utilities. *
• Binary System. Computers use the binary system to write data to the hard drive. The binary system uses only 1s (ones) and 0s (zeros) to record all data.
• Low Level Format. A low level format overwrites and records all zeros (or all ones) to each data block on the drive. This covers the entire drive with zeros placed in every area block. In the past some highly skilled recovery teams could obtain some data after a low level format. This was because computer data uses only zeros and ones (binary system) and the block sizes for the data were different for the zeros (larger block size) and the ones (smaller block size). That resulted in the area block replacing a one having a different edge than an area block replacing a zero. With sophisticated equipment it was possible to recover almost all data by examining the edges of each block. This is no longer the case. Newer low level format utilities (sanitizers) cover a larger block area than the regular block size, a method that not only fills the area, but, since its block area is larger, it overlaps the area block and therefore effectively eliminates using this procedure to recover data. All new ‘sanitize’ programs, including those used by us, which remove data by writing a zero (or one) in every block, use this overlapping, larger block area procedure. The WipeDrive procedure we use is compliant with data privacy acts and meet the criteria of HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliey Act, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, The Patriot Act, Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act, and others.
• . It is suggested that classified or highly sensitive material be removed in this manner because even a hard drive that has been broken into bits and pieces, and physically destroyed, is still not totally dead. Bits and pieces of the hard drive will still contain information. (Of course the recovered information is also bits and pieces.) The only sure way to delete all bits of data is a method that uses writing zeros and ones with the block overlap writing procedure or a heating procedure that neutralizes all magnetism.
• When requested, abc-cde will use, a sanitizing program that uses the new block filling procedure, but it is suggested that sensitive or classified data be deleted by the user before computers are donated. .
• Sanitizing removes everything, all files on the drive,
including setup files, boot, system and application files. If this method is
requested, since software can follow the computer, we request that the computer’s
system and application software be included with your donation. If this is not
possible, then a list of the programs and system that were on the computer would
be very helpful to us.
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* Sometimes valuable data is accidentally overwritten or lost. If the lost information is not immediately recovered by a recovery utility, usually a simple procedure and the utility can be on the computer, recovering data is a very expensive and chancy undertaking. Recovery attempts for data erased by formatting or repartitioning can be extremely costly and companies that do try to recover data will not guarantee results. Most of the time only fragments of lost data can be recovered.
The overwhelming majority of successful lawsuits involving computer data, used data surreptitiously removed from the computer while it was still operational in its invironment and before overwriting or erasure occurred. Its very rare to find a lawsit that used recovered data after any of the above removal procedures.