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#270
Clean, Clean All, DBAN and C-Cleaner
Hi Brink,
Here is what I understood from the thread, adding some assumptions of my own. Can you tell me if this is correct ?
If you only want to get rid of confirmed or suspected viruses : just use Clean. It is much quicker. Possible viruses will remain on your disk, since Clean does not erase files, but they won't be able to be activated afterwards, ever, even after you've repartitioned the disk and reinstalled Windows, since Clean destroys the data the system needs to find and use those files. (I'm especially unsure of this statement.)
If you want, on top of that or exclusively, to prevent any third party to recover your confidential data by using forensic software or other techniques, in case you give away your PC, discard the disk or it is stolen : use Clean all. It will overwrite the whole disk, defeating (ordinary) recovery techniques. Viruses, obviously, would be physically wiped as well.
If you want an even better level of defense against snooping on your data : use DBAN. It does a 3-pass overwrite (or even more).
All three methods may be used to erase all your disks, including your system disk, provided you boot from an external source (Windows DVD or flash drive, DBAN CD).
C-Cleaner's wipe function can be adjusted to multiple overwrites, but it's only good for erasing data drives or partitions, since it works from within Windows.
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