[swavey]

Does anyone know the efficiency of the claim that NO TRACE III cleans your hard drive cookies, history, cache, etc. so well that the US government CANNOT retrieve any information once you run the program?

[LincolnSpector]

swavey, on 05 April 2012 - 06:33 AM, said:

Does anyone know the efficiency of the claim that NO TRACE III cleans your hard drive cookies, history, cache, etc. so well that the US government CANNOT retrieve any information once you run the program?

I'm not familiar with that particular program, but there are many wipe utilities that can do this--some of them free. The real issue isn't what program you use, but what setting you put it on.

For most people, including myself, the option for a quick, single pass will do. But then, I worry about petty crooks trying to steal information from my discarded drive. If you're worried about well-funded government agencies willing to spend a fortune on your particular drive, you might want to go with the Gutmann option, which does 35 passes. The NSA standard does only 7.

For more on this, including software recommendations, see Wipean Old PC Before Saying Goodbye.


Lincoln

[ElfBane]

LincolnSpector, on 05 April 2012 - 07:45 AM, said:

swavey, on 05 April 2012 - 06:33 AM, said:

Does anyone know the efficiency of the claim that NO TRACE III cleans your hard drive cookies, history, cache, etc. so well that the US government CANNOT retrieve any information once you run the program?

I'm not familiar with that particular program, but there are many wipe utilities that can do this--some of them free. The real issue isn't what program you use, but what setting you put it on.

For most people, including myself, the option for a quick, single pass will do. But then, I worry about petty crooks trying to steal information from my discarded drive. If you're worried about well-funded government agencies willing to spend a fortune on your particular drive, you might want to go with the Gutmann option, which does 35 passes. The NSA standard does only 7.

For more on this, including software recommendations, see Wipean Old PC Before Saying Goodbye.


Lincoln

Lincoln, I don't think he's asking about a utilty to wipe the drive for throwing away. I beleive he's looking for an ongoing utility he can use at the end of every browsing session.

@ OP... there are many junior (and senior!) spymasters here, I'm sure one of them will be along to help.

[LiveBrianD]

If you want to get rid of the hard drive, use Darik's Boot & Nuke. If not, another option is to use a browser in incognito/private browsing mode. Another option is to use a copy of firefox or chrome portableapps on a thumb drive, as that's a lot easier to hide (and leaves no traces on the host computer). Then, use ccleaner's drive wiper (under the tools section of it) and wipe the free space of the thumb drive when you're done with it each time.