Wipe, Reformat, and Encrypt

[Sam1990]

So I'm looking to reformat my hard drive, to get a fresh Windows Vista install. How would I go about doing this? Should I just insert the disk and do a clean reformat? I heard that when you do this files are still left behind though.

I'm going to split the drive into two partitions. Partition 1 (C) will be for Windows Vista and partition 2 (Q) will be for everything else. I'm looking into encrypting if not the whole hard drive, then the whole Q partition. How would I go about doing this? I heard that TrueCrypt would be my best choice, but can anyone explain in more detail on this.

Now I know most people like to hide their activity, especially when torrenting and other related things. Not sure if it's allowed to be discussed on the forum, and if not, then I would really appreciate a PM from someone on this topic. I'm looking for, I guess, the 'best' and most 'secure' program to use for downloading torrents. I'm also looking for security measures with the program. I heard of peerguardian, but once again I have no knowledge and would love if someone could explain in more detail.

And last, a way to be anonymous I guess you can say. What are some good protective measures to stay unknown/anonymous or what you would like to consider it. It's not for illegal activity, just something I would like to be informed about. I know there's proxies for browsing the internet and things like that, but I would like more information. If this discussion isn't allowed, then once again please PM me about it.

Please don't flame other peoples posts or discuss anything that Overclock.net does not approve. I'm really looking forward for this thread to be one where you can gain some knowledge.


Thanks.

[=98=]

Re: Wipe, Reformat, and Encrypt

So I'm looking to reformat my hard drive, to get a fresh Windows Vista install. How would I go about doing this? Should I just insert the disk and do a clean reformat? I heard that when you do this files are still left behind though.

Files are left behind as they are not physically wiped from the disk, however, the more you use and defrag your PC, the quicker they disappear since they written over.

You can fully wipe your PC using a number of tools. I don't any names off the top of my head, but they wipe the disk with 1's and 0's about 15 times. This will remove most of your stuff but is uneccesary unless you really have stuff on there you don't want people to see.

I'm going to split the drive into two partitions. Partition 1 (C) will be for Windows Vista and partition 2 (Q) will be for everything else. I'm looking into encrypting if not the whole hard drive, then the whole Q partition. How would I go about doing this? I heard that TrueCrypt would be my best choice, but can anyone explain in more detail on this.

Again, unless you have some top secret stuff, you're just making a lot of hassle and work for yourself. I have no idea about encryption, so i won't say nowt.

Now I know most people like to hide their activity, especially when torrenting and other related things. Not sure if it's allowed to be discussed on the forum, and if not, then I would really appreciate a PM from someone on this topic. I'm looking for, I guess, the 'best' and most 'secure' program to use for downloading torrents. I'm also looking for security measures with the program. I heard of peerguardian, but once again I have no knowledge and would love if someone could explain in more detail.

Peerguardian is okay, but you'll never be 100% hidden. It's also very buggy on Vista and 64bit is still a no go area.

In most torrenting programs, there will be options for encryption. The strongest is RC4 encryption. There are three options:

Off: Encrypts nowt

On1: Encrypts all outbound traffic from your computer.

On2: Encrypts all outbound traffic and only accepts encrypted incoming traffic (this can reduce the amount of seeds. Not recommended for torrents with minimal users)

And last, a way to be anonymous I guess you can say. What are some good protective measures to stay unknown/anonymous or what you would like to consider it. It's not for illegal activity, just something I would like to be informed about. I know there's proxies for browsing the internet and things like that, but I would like more information. If this discussion isn't allowed, then once again please PM me about it.

Don't sign up for websites unless you really want to use them. Secondly, do not pass around private information on forums.

Basically, use your common sense. Web based proxies are okay, but horrible to use. Software proxies are just hard to set up