Cleaning a hard drive

I think I may need to take a laptop with me to BKK on my next visit (may have some work to do) and although I don't have any pictures on it I'd rather no-one see, I want to make sure it's completely 'clean' before I go.
I do use it to view websites (like this one) and blogs with pictures that might label me as someone worthy of further interrogation, and I don't want my name on some Govt list of 'suspects'. :cyclopsani:
With the recent postings about single guys being stopped on their return to UK from Asia, I'd like to make sure it's completey clean. I've Googled and there's quite a bit of s/w that claims to remove all traces, but I read somewhere that some are more thorough than others. I also read that every image / keystroke is logged by windows and can be read later if you know how.
Any advice from our resident IT boffins? :idea:

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[Bob]

A couple of comments:
(1) First, clean up everything you want to clean (if you want to delete linked sites in favorites, deleted those; if you want to delete your IE history/cookies delete those; if you have any questionable photos or whatever on your laptop, delete those). No "cleaning" program covers up obvious tracks.
(2) Empty your recycle bin.
(3) Now, anything questionable is still on your harddrive - in the "free space" - and there are programs that can find the stuff. You've really only erased your internal links to get to that information so far.
(4) Get a wiping program and, if you're really nervous, have it make 9+ passes (it'll take a long time- maybe 20 to 30 hours depending on the size of your harddrive and the speed of your computer).
As far as I understand it, the deleted items are gone forever (and can't be retrieved by anybody with any program). The wiping programs merely randomly places 1's and 0's throughout the free space on the drive and effectively destroys any organized 1's and 0's (any data or photo is just a special series of 1's and 0's).

As concerns Windows keeping track of each key stroke, not true as far as I know. There are programs (viruses/trojans) which, if implanted on your computer, will do just that but Windows doesn't do it on its own.

Recalling the comments made in another thread about laptops being searched at customs in the US, I was prepared for that to happen a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles. The guy asked me where I had come from and I said "originally, Bangkok." All he said to me was "welcome home" and waved me by.

[Dboy]

#1 pagefile.sys
assuming you are still in the stone-age and using windows instead of Linux, you also
might want to delete "pagefile.sys" which is a file related to virtual memory. Here's
microsoft's recommended way of deleting it (there are other ways):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255205

You will probably find one of these "pagefile.sys" files in each of your partitions, not just in C: .


#2 logfiles (both system logs and application logs)

various applications, as well as windows itself may generate log files. This has the potential
to "leak" your activites...find and delete (alot of this will be system-specific so can't give you
more detail). Try a file search for *.log an *.txt just for starters.


#3 file searches

use the file search tool in windows to look for these extentions: .txt, .jpg, .bmp. .avi ...and others


#4 delete or file transfer (Internet) off your system anything proprietary or valuable (research,
engineering drawings, cure for AIDS, etc). ICE will image your laptop and get ALL of your data


#5 make sure there are no saved passwords on your system (online banking, Sawatdee forum, etc).
If you forget to wipe this, the $8/hr goons at the airport can get access to your financial life. Don't
forget the clipboard. open up notepad and attempt a right-click-paste. Never know what you may have
saved there:-)


#6 after you've done your system cleanup, perform several hours of random web surfing to
harmless websites, perform random activities like copy/paste some text into notepad and save it,
save a few .jpgs from Google images, etc. This will generate some covering activities so it will be
less obvious that you've cleaned the machine. Appear to know nothing about the workings, etc
of your system.


#7 there's no such thing as being too paranoid. We live in interesting times. ONLY cleanup like this if you've done nothing wrong...if you have been doing something illegal (fine by me, I'm an anarchist) highly recommend you completely wipe the machine, perform multiple overwrites of the disk, then go to TukCom/Pantip, etc and buy a copy of windows XP for 100bt and install that in new fresh file system (ICE doesn't care about pirated windows). Better yet, destroy the disk altogether and sell the laptop minus the drive on ebay or give it to a charity. A cheap hard-drive is not worth spending time in an orange jumpsuit. Don't bring the laptop into US without a hard-drive, or with encrypted data, or in an un-bootable state. The US govt is not your friend. Thankfully though, ICE employees seem be be fairly dim-witted.

EDIT: I originally missed the "i'm from UK" part...only thing to change is replace "ICE" (US immigration goons) with your equivalent. Sorry

Dboy


p.s. had dinner last week with 2 people interested in this topic...are you he? :-)

[Marsilius]

I work for several "adult entertainment" websites and we recommend to our members (and ourselves use) Evidence Eliminator (www.evidence-eliminator.com) to clean up after browsing.

www.privacy-software-ratings.com has some interesting things to say about various products. On Evidence Eliminator, for example, they say: "Evidence Eliminator packs a wallop to any file that doesnтАЩt belong on your machine, employing the same standards the U.S. Military uses to protect their data. And Evidence Eliminator is easy to command, with an arsenal of convenient features at your disposal. For example, you can Auto-Configure locations where information is commonly stored for easy regular maintenance. A new user Safety Check feature keeps beginners from making a mistake that ends up causing their computer more harm than good. A Stealth Mode keeps your work under the тАЬspiesтАЩтАЭ radar. And the entire time Evidence Eliminator is doing its duty, itтАЩs running constant security and safety tests for your total peace of mind."

This is exactly the kind of info I wanted. Thanks guys :cheers: