HDD image xfer

[justanothertpa]

Hello. We have 2 computers (1 desktop, 1 laptop) with (literally) years of sensitive client employee data files (W-2 information, SS#s, addresses, salaries, etc.). These files have all been deleted from the HDDs in both machines over time, and stored on separate backup drives that never see the light of day or an Internet connection. However, deleting files doesn't actually delete them completely from a HDD. We are now in the process of replacing the drives in both computers with newer and much larger ones. We plan to image the old drives, and restore the images to the new drive in each machine.

The question is, will "residue" from the deleted files on the old hard drives transfer over (through imaging) to the new drives?

This could be a problem, especially for the laptop. We are extremely careful, but if the laptop is lost or stolen (or the server compromised, our clients wouldn't be too happy to learn that their information is vulnerable.

By the way, we have changed our practices considerably recently. This type of data no longer resides on are main drives. It is written straight to removable media.

Thanks in advance.

 

[aldan]

it would take on hell of a tech to get anything useful from those drives.when cloning one drive to another your are basically overwriting any info on that drive rendering it almost impossible to recover.no residue from the old drives is going to be recoverable here.