Remove everything from the disk except windows. How to erase all data from iPhone or iPad

Permanently erasing files from a hard drive requires some knowledge, and when working with USB and SSD drives, you can fall into a trap.

Different drives provide different capabilities for complete removal files Do you consider the file to be permanently deleted? No matter how it is: most of the documents that you have erased recently are safely in their original form on your drive. This is bad if you need to give a seemingly empty flash drive to a colleague or want to sell your old laptop, but good if you accidentally deleted the result of days of work. With the help of appropriate utilities, your data can be recovered in just a couple of mouse clicks. If you need to reliably and with a guarantee delete information from the media, you should do a little more operations than simply pressing the “Delete” key.

The crux of the problem is this: the operating room Windows system is extremely sensitive to all files when it comes to deleting them. To protect against user error, after the user presses the “Delete” key, the operating system moves the file to be deleted to the Recycle Bin. You can erase it from the Recycle Bin manually, or after it becomes full, automatic removal to start with the oldest files. The user can set the Basket size independently for each available hard system disk. It should be remembered that even after clearing it, and after deleting the file bypassing the Recycle Bin (using the key combination “Shift+Delete”), the contents of the document still remain on the hard drive. The reason is simple: the file is physically erased only after the area it occupies on the hard drive is filled with other data.

Obviously, such a deletion would require the same amount of time as it would take to simply copy a file. That's why Windows simply marks the entries in the Master File Table corresponding to the erased data as deleted. This table combines file names with physical blocks on the hard drive. Thus, the contents of the file remain recorded on the hard drive, although the operating system has already “forgot” about it.

The same thing happens when you format the media. In this case, the OS completely replaces the main file table and other metadata file system clean versions. In the data area, all files remain unchanged. The only difference between normal and quick formatting is that in the latter case the media is not checked for physical errors.

Why does Windows only pretend to erase files?

Windows stores information about each file in a Master File Table. This hidden file, which only the operating system can access. It contains file names as well as metadata such as the username and permissions for the file. In addition, the MFT indicates where each file is stored on the hard drive and whether it is fragmented (that is, whether it is located in several blocks in different sectors of the disk). When you erase a file, it is simply marked as deleted in MFT. The contents of this file remain on the hard drive in original condition, and special utilities that examine the hard drive for the presence of a structure of known file types allow you to restore it without loss. That is why it is important not only to delete confidential data, but also to rewrite the disk using specialized utilities. Only this will make recovery impossible.

1. Tell, how to delete everything from your computer without a trace? I decided to sell my system unit along with hard drive and buy a new one based on a quad-core processor. Before selling everything with hard drive deleted it with simple formatting, then advertised in the newspaper. While I was waiting for a buyer, I came across your section about and imagine, most of the files were restored using the programs described there, among the recovered all personal photographs and home video! I formatted the hard drive several times in a row, but still some of the files are not completely deleted. Came to the conclusion that HDD It’s better to keep it for yourself, but on the other hand, why do I need an old 250 GB SATA 2 screw? Tell me, there are free programs that can delete files from your computer without the possibility of restoring them.
2. Hello, can you please help me completely delete all data on my laptop before selling it? The laptop contained a lot of confidential data, which I deleted and then reinstalled the operating system, but a familiar technician says that this is clearly not enough and all files can be restored using special utilities.
3. Hello admin, I read your articles about a program that removes soft bads on a screw, but I want to say that it still exists Acronis program Drive Cleanser designed to remove user information With hard drives without the possibility of recovery, it also forcibly writes random numbers to sectors of the hard disk in several passes and has a double effect. Firstly, complete deletion of information on the computer, and secondly, treatment of the hard drive from bad blocks. Personally, after using this program, I have fewer sectors with a large read delay.

Hello friends! Of course, there is more than one such program. In today’s article I suggest using the following utilities:

1. Acronis Drive Cleaner- specially developed by a famous developer to permanently delete files from your computer. Acronis Drive Cleanser is installed along with the program Acronis True Image Home 2015 and works in trial mode for 15 days. What is important, in the program Acronis True Image Home 2015, you can create a bootable USB flash drive and boot your laptop from it, then also delete all data using the utility Acronis Drive Cleanser. Boot disk Acronis does not have any time restrictions.

2 . The second program we are considering, also includes a special tool for completely deleting data and is completely free.

Most of the deleted information can always be recovered

All experienced users know that regular formatting does not completely delete your files; information about them remains in HDD sectors for a long time yet. The files are simply marked as deleted and most data recovery programs will easily recover information that you think has been completely erased.

What Acronis Drive Cleanser does

The program repeatedly overwrites all sectors on the hard drive with random numbers in 35 passes using special algorithms, which completely erases previously existing information and makes it impossible to recover files on such media 100%.

In addition to the official U.S. deletion standard, U.S. Standard, DoD 5220.22-M Acronis Drive Cleanser uses its own effective data destruction algorithms.

• Note: As the author of the third letter correctly noted, numerous rewrites of information on the hard drive, in some cases, can reduce the number of problem sectors (with a long read delay), including bad blocks.

Go to the official website of the program

http://www.acronis.com/ru-ru/

Click Try for free.

Download the installer and run it

Launch trial version

Tools. More tools.

Choosing a tool Drive Cleaner

You cannot make a mistake in this window, otherwise you will delete data from the wrong drive.

In my case, three are connected to the computer hard drives, you need to delete all information without the possibility of recovery on the first hard drive with a capacity of 250 GB.

Acronis Drive Cleaner can destroy data separately on any partition you select. I want to delete everything, so oh I mark all available partitions on the HDD

The program offers several ways to completely destroy information, for simple user The first domestic method will be sufficient - Russian standard, GOST R50739-95.

The most reliable, but rather time-consuming way to delete files is the Peter Gutman algorithm in 35 passes.

Check the box Delete selected partitions permanently and click Proceed.

Hover your mouse over the program icon in the tray and find out how much time is left until the operation is completed. But looking ahead, I’ll say that a 250 GB hard drive took 20 minutes.

Bootable USB flash drive Acronis True Image Home 2015

If you need to delete all data from a laptop, then create and load a laptop from it, select:

Tools and Utilities->Acronis Drive Cleaner, then everything happens the same as in the previous case.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition

Fully free program with a similar tool.

Friends, I won’t repeat myself; read about how to download and install in our other detailed article.

After installing the program, in its main window, select the hard drive we need with the left mouse, then click on the button Erasing a hard drive.

Select the required number of passes and click OK.

For those interested, read the continuation.

Sometimes cases arise when it is necessary to destroy, for example, corporate information when recycling computers, or when selling a PC, to permanently delete all files, or to erase the history of correspondence with a girlfriend. So, how to delete files so that no specialist can restore them? Read the answer below.

I would like to offer you a very simple way to permanently delete files. For this we need the well-known CCleaner program. I think few people know about it and it is intended for cleaning the system. In fact, friends, this is powerful tool to free up memory and remove unnecessary crap from your computer. You don't have to install CCleaner, since there is a portable version of the program.

How to permanently delete files using CCleaner

So, go to http://ccleaner.org.ua/download/ and select the Portable version to download,

The program will be downloaded in an archive to your computer. Unzip ccleaner,

Open the folder and run the program, depending on the bit depth of your system. I already wrote. For example, I have a 64-bit operating system, so I run the CCleaner64.exe file,

A program window will open, now let's switch to Russian. To do this, go to the Options - Settings section, and select Russian in the Language field.

Now select the “Permanent erase” cleaning mode, and then select the erasing method:
Simple overwrite will delete data simple programs similar to DMDE,
Gutman method (35 passes) - will effectively destroy all files on the disk you choose. With this deletion method, even the best specialists will not be able to recover data.

Check the boxes for “Clear alternative data streams” and “Clean up cluster fragments”. Next, check the box next to the disk that needs to be permanently cleaned (destroy data) and check the “Clean up” free place in MFT"

We're done with the settings, now let's move on to the Cleaning section. Uncheck all the top checkboxes and leave only one at the very bottom, “Clean up free space.”

Let's go to the applications tab and here we will also uncheck all the checkboxes (if you want to clear applications too, you can leave the necessary items). Click the "Clean" button

Are you planning to sell your laptop and replace it with a model that is more suitable for your current needs? For such a task, you need to properly prepare the device. No one would want their personal information to be seen by someone and fall into the hands of criminals, so let’s talk about cleaning the gadget. How to clean your computer before selling it? How to erase all information except Windows? We will analyze a detailed algorithm for such work in this article.

Cleaning the laptop

Before you get rid of any device that contains your personal information, you need to make sure that it is completely destroyed. Only if you are completely sure that there is no personal information on the gadget can the device be sold or thrown away.

Important! This is very important, because on almost all drives the data that is deleted in the usual way, can be easily restored. It is not always possible to completely get rid of information by simply deleting it.

Disks and their functionality

Laptops and computers with internal storage will only need to be erased if they have mechanical or hybrid hard drives.

Data from solid-state media is destroyed irrevocably, the TRIM command is to blame for this. It is thanks to her that SSDs work so fast. Let us repeat that we will talk about hybrid and mechanical disks.

Operating systems and their capabilities

Different operating systems have their own nuances:

• In Windows 8 and 8.1 there is a function “Delete all data and reinstalling Windows" The “Completely clean the disk” option will ensure the complete destruction of information without the possibility of its subsequent recovery.
• For Windows 7, you can use the DBAN utility. It will allow you to overwrite absolutely all files on the disk with a random set of data. This method requires subsequent installation operating system.

Important! Multiple repetitions of this kind of procedure are not required.

• Macs equipped with mechanical drives need to boot into recovery mode. To completely remove it, you need to use Disk Utility and then reinstall the operating system.

If you are concerned about how to clean a laptop before selling it without resorting to reinstalling the operating system, read on.

Deleting protected files and folders

Most likely, many computer users have encountered problems deleting some files or folders at least once in their lives. You pressed the Delete button or selected the “Delete” command in context menu, but the file deletion process itself is not going to be carried out, and an error message appears.

Such files usually have a “lock” next to the label. These files may be created by viruses or have other origins, but you need to get rid of them - this is unconditional.

What to do in this situation?

Scan your device with an antivirus for threats and clean it if any are found. Let's move on to the protected files and folders themselves. Let's turn to the utility - Unlocker. This program is completely free and located in public access on the Internet, and it copes with its task perfectly:

1. We install the program itself.
2. Click on the “junk” file or folder RMB ( right click mouse) and select the line “Unlocker”.
3. In the context menu that appears, select “Delete”.
4. Click “OK” and wait for the process to complete.

Removing passwords in different browsers

The autosave feature in browsers is very convenient, but not if you give your device to another person. We will talk about removing passwords in different browsers.

Removal in Google Chrome:

1. Open “Settings”, go to “ Additional settings”, located at the very end of the page.
2. Go to the “Passwords and Forms” section, in the “Offer to save passwords for sites” item, click on “Customize”.
3. In the window that appears, delete passwords.

Uninstallation in Mozilla Firefox:

1. Click on the “Open menu” button. Next, go to “Settings”.
2. In the window that opens, find the “Protection” tab.
3. Go to the “Passwords” section, find “Saved Passwords” there, and here we delete passwords.
4. All saved passwords can be deleted by pressing one button: “Delete all”.

Removal in Yandex.Browser

To delete data from this browser, there are instructions for switching between tabs:

1. “Yandex browser settings.”
2. "Settings".
3. “Show advanced settings.”
4. “Passwords and autofill.”
5. “Password Management”. Autofill data and all other entered information are deleted directly here.

Uninstall in Opera

In order:

1. “Customizing and managing Opera.”
2. “Settings”.
3. "Safety".
4. “Passwords.”
5. “Manage saved passwords.”
6. “Saved Passwords”. Removing passwords is done here.

Uninstallation in Internet Explorer

To delete data here you need to perform the following transition steps:

1. "Service".
2. “Browser properties”.
3. "Content".
4. “Autofill” - “Options”.
5. “Autofill options” - “Delete autofill history...”.
6. In the “Deleting review history” window, check the “Passwords” checkbox and click the “Delete” button.

Important! To remove saved passwords to clean your computer before selling it, you can use third party applications, CCleaner can handle this task perfectly.

Paranoia?

Even after all the steps taken, do you still feel like you couldn’t completely clean your computer before selling it? If you are afraid that your secret data will be retrieved from the most terrible depths, we suggest you do the following:

1. Create a new administrative account.
2. View all other accounts on the device.
3. Remove all unnecessary (from a sales point of view) programs and files/directories.
4. Clear “temps” (there are plenty of detailed articles about this).
5. Create a separate partition in the free space and encrypt it with TrueCrypt. At the output we have two sections: an encrypted one and a section with the system and a minimum amount of data.
6. Go through the first section using ccleaner.
7. Delete the encrypted partition and merge the free space with the first one.

Hello! Many people are concerned about what will happen after deleting all data from the iPhone through iCloud.com. But there is very little adequate and normal information on the Internet on this issue. And to be completely precise, there is practically none. Most resources simply take and copy a phrase from the Apple website - “Erasing data from the device also disables Find My iPhone and Activation Lock.”

Which confuses many and gives rise to a lot of questions: If you erase the device through “Find iPhone”, will it be freed from the Activation lock and can be used? Is the block on Apple ID removed? Will the data be completely deleted? How is it different from Lost Mode? (-read it, it won’t be superfluous). And these are just the most basic “mysteries”. In fact, there are many more of them!

However, if we return to the description of this function, it turns out that the answer to all these questions is obvious - after clicking “Erase iPhone” the device will be “clean” and not blocked.

What happens? The author of these lines in vain advises everyone to erase the device if it is lost (stolen) and it is not possible to find it? That is, on the one hand, we delete all our data (this is a plus). On the other hand, will we completely unlock the phone (this is a minus) and anyone can use it?

But, in fact, there is something missing in this phrase. And at the end of the article we will correct it :)

In order to clearly show what happens during and after the process of deleting data from an iPhone through “Find iPhone,” I decided to do this action myself. True, an iPad will participate in this experiment (the phone will be restored from backup copy- this is a very long time), but for an iPhone the result will be completely similar. So, let's go!

We have the “Find iPhone” function enabled on the device and imagine that we have irretrievably lost the gadget (or it was stolen). We need to erase all data from it, for this:

1. Go to iCloud.com and enter your Apple ID account.
   
2. Click on “Find iPhone” and select the one you want to clean from the list of devices.
   
3. Click “Erase iPad” (or iPhone) and confidently agree that all materials and settings will be deleted. And, of course, after this action the device cannot be detected or tracked.
   
4. But here is a small problem for those who do not own complete information about accounting Apple records ID. The fact is that to confirm your intentions you need to answer security questions (at least two out of three).
   
5. After this, we indicate the phone number and a short message - they should appear on the device screen after erasing. Looking ahead, I would like to note the fact that for some reason all these inscriptions did not appear on the display. Why? Honestly, I don’t know - if you have ideas, write in the comments. Click “Finish”.
   
6. All! iPhone data or iPad completely removed. And this is where the most important thing begins - you must remember this. We see the inscription “Erasing completed” and another line - “Remove from Find iPhone”.
   
7. Now, if you press it, the device will actually be “freed” from the Apple ID lock and anyone can activate it. And if you don't click, your iPhone or iPad will be in Lost and Erased mode.
   

In this case, unlocking the device is almost impossible. Even through technical support. With a high degree of probability, the gadget can be safely sold for spare parts. And even then, the most expensive of them - the motherboard - will be blocked in iCloud.

As promised, we’ll slightly correct the phrase from the official Apple website :)

And now short conclusions - if you erase an iPhone or iPad using the “Find iPhone” function, then:

1. Apple ID activation lock will not be automatically removed. This can be done manually after the process is completed.
2. All data is deleted entirely.
3. Now it is impossible to determine the geoposition and location of the gadget.

P.S. Questions, common sense, discussions - comments are open for all of this. Write! Well, you can “like” the article, so what... helpful information same!