[ale] really really deleting files....

[mattesonry at corp.earthlink.net (Ryan Matteson)]

Geoffrey wrote:
> Keith R. Watson wrote:
> 
>> However if you mean no one, not even a three letter government agency 
>> can recover the data, then it is not possible to erase data so that it 
>> is totally safe from recovery. (I'm sure that will start a flame war) 
>> The real issue is how do you define the terms erase and recoverable:
> 
> 
> Okay, I've checked out the various docs, briefly.  I don't really have 
> the time to digest them fully at this, time, but would ask your patient. 
>  In my feeble mind, it seems to me that if you remove a file, then fill 
> that file system completely up with garbage, the removed file is not 
> retrievable.  Might you suggest the flaw in my process?
> 

It is still there at the subatomic level. Anyone with a electron 
miscroscope and an understanding pf magnetics and disk technologies 
could recover it. I thought I recall Peter Gutman saying you need
to write over the bit 20 - 30 times to be effective. This number is
based off my recollection of his paper, and could be wrong.


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