TOGGI3 wrote:
though if your really trying to hide something, not even shred is totally effective, the best forensics can read a bit on a drive and can measure how strong the magnetic force is on each bit, therefore it may be stronger or weaker or equal in comparison to a freshly written bit, using this information it can be determined what sets of bits were there before they were overwritten.
only way to ensure your data is in your hands only forever is to destroy it completely
There is a number of times a format can be run that will jarble up the drive enough that the data will not be recoverable.