Whats the difference between formatting, defragmenting and wiping?
Formatting, defragmenting, and wiping are three common processes used by people attempting to destroy computer records. Formatting a drive is a quick and easy task that eliminates the document indexes and file/folder pointers on a computer hard drive. This would equate to going into a library and throwing out the entire card catalog. In most cases, the formatting does not harm the data on the hard drive. The contents of the documents, files, and folders still physically exist on the hard drive and are fully recoverable by a computer forensic expert. Defragmenting is easily thought of as a reorganization of the computer’s filing cabinet. To make the computer run more efficiently, all of the files are condensed to the smallest space possible, reorganized, and placed at the front of the drive. Defragmenting a computer will not harm the active data (the data that a user can normally access on their own) but may render recoverable deleted data virtually unrecoverable. However, depending on
