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vetivert
gagged, but never silent
Joined: Sep 18, 2004
Posts: 5768
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 Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 4:39 am Post subject: deleting stuff |
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i hear that, even if one deletes things from one's pooter, that there are still "ghosts" left on the hard drive.
now, i am a bit obsessive about keeping my pooter "clean", and so can anyone tell me how to get rid of these things? i'm talking about files, websites, cookies. i do clear my browser out every few days - cache, cookies and history - and do "disk cleanup" (i have wondows XP) and empty the recycle bin, at least once a week.
and, before you ask - no, i'm not trying to hide traces of kiddie porn or anything similar, thanks. 
i've heard of "window washer", but that costs money, so freebie suggestions, please! 
and thank you, oh knowledgable ones - from a complete luddite. |
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ljbouchard
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 05, 2005
Posts: 1278
Location: Rochester Minnesota
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| Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 7:40 am Post subject: |
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OK Vertivert,
Here is the higher level detail of what is happening. When you delete a file, what you are deleting is a pointer to that file and telling the OS that the space is available on the disk to be written. The file itself is not deleted from the disk. When you save a new file, the OS will look for a block of space on the disk large enough to save the file. If it finds the block large enough, it puts the file there. If is does not find a large enough block, it takes all of the smaller blocks that contains deleted files and fragments the new file to fit into those blocks and overwrites the deleted file into those new blocks. Of course, fragmented files take longer to retrieve because the OS has to keep track of where the next fragment is.
In fact, one good recommendation to get rid of those unwanted files is to Defragment the disk on a regular basis. This takes the fragmented files and moves them to blocks that are large enough for the whole file by moving files around the disk. By the time you are done, there may be some unwanted stuff at the end of the disk but not enough to bother with and most of it will be current files that you did not delete but were moved out of the way to perform the disk defragmentation operation.
Beyond that, I think there are other ways but I think it takes more of an understanding of the internals of the OS than I want to get into right now.
_________________
Louis J Bouchard
Rochester Minnesota
"Only when all those who surround you are different, do you truly belong."
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Fred Tate Little Man Tate |
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vetivert
gagged, but never silent
Joined: Sep 18, 2004
Posts: 5768
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| Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 9:32 am Post subject: |
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| brilliant, louis - thanks! especially as i already defrag my pooter on a regular basis, too (i did say i was obsessive...) |
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BitterGeek
Sea Gull
Joined: Jul 06, 2005
Posts: 239
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| Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:55 am Post subject: |
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If you're really paranoid, a wipe utility will take care of things. A wipe utility will overwrite the files you delete with random 1's and 0's on the disk. With enough passes, only advanced forensics can recover the data.
For wholesale disk wipes, Dan's Boot and Nuke works wonders:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
For simple file wipes, the wipe utility that comes with PGP works well too.
http://www.pgpi.org/products/pgp/versions/freeware/ |
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Minus
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 48
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| Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:36 am Post subject: |
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There's also a utility called Eraser (for Windows) which overwrite files.
Last edited by Minus on Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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vetivert
gagged, but never silent
Joined: Sep 18, 2004
Posts: 5768
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| Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:47 am Post subject: |
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thanks, all. if there's something i absolutely CAN'T remove, then that's okay - i just want my pooter to be as tidy as possible. and don't discourage me - it's about the ONLY "housework" i do...  |
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sparkman
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: May 17, 2005
Age: 26
Posts: 188
Location: N Ireland
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| Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:10 am Post subject: |
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If all this does not work take a hammer and hit the hard drive to pieces.  |
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vetivert
gagged, but never silent
Joined: Sep 18, 2004
Posts: 5768
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| Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:08 am Post subject: |
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PMSL !
now THAT's more MY version of microtechnology!  |
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