Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: Parabolic45 on June 14, 2013, 03:59 am

Title: Now on Tails, but what about Windows?
Post by: Parabolic45 on June 14, 2013, 03:59 am
I have a question for you guys that might have an easy solution but I'm a somewhat groovy nooby...
I recently made the switch over to Tails with a persistent chunk that's protected and all that. First off, I absolutely love it and I would rather use it than windows, really. However, my pc that I used up until now still has all of my old information on it from my prior silkroad adventures..

My question is how should I be sure that I have removed all traces of my activity on Tor & SR that is on my current harddrive? I am not ig-nant enough to think that my recycle bin takes care of this for me, but I'm not a tech-person by any means. I'm willing to wipe the OS if thats required; in fact, I've considered doing this in the past anyways. I'll just back up my pictures and music with a WD hard drive and be on my way. If I do this, what are some good OS's to install in place of Windows 7?

I should also add that I am only a personal buyer with <10 total transactions so the disk isn't a goldmine of info for any LE, I would just feel safer knowing everything is disposed of.
Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: Now on Tails, but what about Windows?
Post by: astor on June 14, 2013, 04:05 am
Well, it's up to you, but the only way to remove all traces is a full disk wipe. Consider all the stuff that the browser bundle leaves behind on Windows:

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=148291.msg1152452#msg1152452

Consider the difficulties of securely erasing data on a hard drive:

http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=99520.msg699299#msg699299

Individual file erasure is not enough.

If you really want to get rid of all traces, you need to download DBAN (http://dban.org) and nuke your hard drive, then reinstall the OS.

Should you do it with fewer than 10 purchases? Probably not worth it, honestly, but that's up to you.
Title: Re: Now on Tails, but what about Windows?
Post by: Parabolic45 on June 14, 2013, 04:49 am
awesome, thanks for the quick responses astor...I'm going to review these threads and see where I'm at afterwards..If I were to wipe the disk, I don't have an OS to install afterwards. Maybe this is the wrong spot to ask, but what are some good OS's that I could get free? I'm sure I could look elsewhere for details but maybe someone could get me started in the right direction?

EDIT: I am a small time buyer but if I choose to move to larger quanities or to open a vendor account in the future, I don't want anything incriminating to be stuck to my drives...