How to permanently delete files from your hard drive without trace? is there any free software out there?

please help. thanks!

The only one I know of is Darik's Boot N Nuke, but that just wipes your drive of everything not individual files/data, for use when selling your PC to remove all of your data etc.

I haven't used it so I don't know how good/bad it is and may not be what you need anyway, if you only want to remove certain files/data.

HIH

Craig

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/50840

Pick up Webroot's Window Washer. Once you'd deleted anything, you then run Window Washer with the "bleach" setting to the Guttman level which is 35 passes over writing everything you set the software up to overwrite. The DoD (Department of Defense) only requires 3 passes for a deleted item to be "securely" deleted and the NSA only require 7 passes, meaning it is unrecoverable. There is currently no tech that can recover anything from a Guttman pass. Window Washer gives you the choise to go up to 100 passes if you're really paranoid.

Now is there any "free" software that does this? None that I know of.

Hi, ccleaner is good for cleaning up old scraps on your PC. I don't know how well it will erase things. How about cleaning and deleting all you want and then run CCLEANER, then reformat you drive. There is a tool called Shredder that a friend used , But that is all I can remember about the tool.

Also, check here for some free tools.
http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/

REVO UNINSTALLER is really great.

We gave a computer to my son and have a couple of old ones we are going to donate to the local chemo doc for her patients to use while getting chemo. We asked a repair guy from Dell what the best way to clean the hard drive was (didn't want any credit info etc getting out) and he said the very best way was to do a reinstall of the OS.

reinstall of the OS leaves alot data behind that can be easilly recovered. If you want to wipe the data use a disc cleaner (like http://www.killdisk.com/ for example)...it fills the disk with random data and when you do this few times the original data can't be recovered anymore (with 3 wipes it's impossible to recover data with any normal computers and with around 7 wipes it becomes totally imposible)

You want to delete all files on the hard disk or just one? For individual I use TuneUp Utilities 2008. If I want to wipe a hard disk clean, I just use an old DOS program called KILLDISK I think.

If your speaking of one file, delete it, then add/create a new file of the same size of the deleted files. This will rewrite the traces left behind. However not foolproof.

To erase ALL the drive get AUTONUKE and put in a floppy... boot and nuke

Boot and Nuke is also it's name, in case you can't find it.

Jv16 Powertools (macecraft.com) everything claimed for it, and more. Has loads of options to get things cleaned up SAFELY, and in good order. I've been using it for many years, and it has never failed.

use QDS Security Toolkit (freeware) can clean free space, clean Internet history, create Encrypted Drive, shred files. Download in here