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I'm getting working experience as hardware tech guy meaning I have to repair and fix used computers daily. One of those tasks is formatting all the hard disks and we use Killdisk active@, at Work for erasing all the data.

I'm interested in security related things appealing for used computers, which ones someone else is gonna buy as "used", how safe is Killdisk @ Active Free version?

With fast Google search, I didn't find any method to recover data erased by Killdisk. Is there any?

Jere_Sumell
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Aside from the fact that an average customer (you're primary clientele) isn't going to know how to perform data recovery, I can tell you this from my experience.

Active@ also has a data recovery option which is one of my favorites. http://www.file-recovery.com/ It's thorough, often produces results even after an entire format and partial over write. I've used this tool hundreds of times on client's deleted/lost/formatted family photos, dissertations, etc...

A commonly known one is Recuva. Not my favorite since it takes an extremely long time to scan especially since the "Deep Scan" option is the only one that seems to produce any results. It's handy when you know exactly what your looking for and need/want a live program rather than a bootable one.

All this to say that data wiping/formatting is mostly effective when drives have been wiped and over written several times, redundantly. I've never used Active@ KillDisk (My personal preference is D.B.A.N.) but surely it has various degrees of wiping.

If you do a couple passes, then install an operating system (plus a starter package of programs?) Then security is optimally in your favor.

If someone is trying to steal banking passwords, identities, etc... they aren't going to be buying USED computers in hopes that forensic level data recovery will produce thousands of fragments of data. That they then have to sifted through to see if it's enough information (assuming it exists at all) to allow them to JUST begin the real crime.

More info on forensic data recovery: http://forensicswiki.org/wiki/Tools