if u delete a file off your hard drive is it still there ? only hidden ?

Answer 1

Yes it is still there.

To truly erase data, you need to write over it. Simply deleting files or reformatting the drive won't do. Luckily, plenty of free and inexpensive wipe programs (also known as shredders) can cover the data with zeroes or random patterns, making it unreadable by data-restoration software.

Some machines can recover data that's been written over only one or two times, however. That's where secure delete standards, such as the Department of Defense 5220.22-M, come in. According to this specification, overwriting the drive sectors three times with specific, different characters constitutes one pass. Many experts recommend seven such passes to render the data completely unrecoverable. But reading data that has been overwritten by even the simplest shredders requires expensive hardware, so unless you're worried about professional sleuths, such thorough overwriting probably isn't necessary.

Keep in mind that deleting just the sensitive files may not protect you fully. Unidentified copies of those files could exist in "unused" parts of your hard drive, or in your swap file, among other possible locations. It's a good idea to wipe these areas of your drive as well--or go the surefire route and wipe your entire hard drive. (See "Hard Drives Exposed" for more on the dangers of unwiped hard drives.)

To clean up specific files (none holding state secrets) and the drive's free space, rely on Summit Computer's free Hard Disk Scrubber 2. To be extra cautious, check Heavy Scrub to write over the disk three times (see FIGURE 1). Visit Summit to download your copy.

A more powerful option is Jetico's $40 BCWipe 3, which adds 5220.22-M support and cleans up unused space in the swap file. Visit Jetico to download the trial version.

To wipe the entire drive, I recommend LSoft Technologies' free Active@ KillDisk or its $30 sibling, Active@ KillDisk Professional. The DOS programs load from a bootable floppy and overwrite every partition on the hard drive. The free version does a basic wipe, covering the drive with zeroes in one pass. Professional adds 5220.22-M-compliant wiping, and it will make as many passes as you like.

Wiping takes time, however. On my test system, KillDisk took more than 12 hours to complete one pass of a 13GB drive. The recommended seven passes could take days.

Answer 2

Still there, possibly in your deleted items. Normally a deleted file is just removed from the operating system, but is still on the hard drive. The next file you save could write over that now deleted file or it could hang around for a long time. Just depends how active your files are.

Answer 3

Yes, just the file index is taken off active file indice. The contents of it is still physically there without an index entry; essentially hidden but being released to available drive space for the eventuality of overwritten.

Answer 4

Yes, it is still there. It is saved with a different name. You cannot see the file. IF you need to retrieve it, you can buy software such as Search and Recover that can do this. If you need to make sure HD is absolutely clean from files, you need special software. Although many people believe that formatting the drive erases all files, it doesn't. People with computer savy can retrieve those files

Answer 5

Yes it just hidden waitng to be overwritten. It can be restore some software. Best way to really delete file is to rewrite them with redundant data. One of the ways is to remove them with Department of Defense method. That rewrites it.

Answer 6

Yes! In the DOS, FAT, NTFS systems!

Only the directory entry is altered, in that the first letter of the filename is deleted. So, it is easy to restore.

In the 800 other OSes, all free, the file really is deleted!
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Answer 7

yes and no.

There is a table named FAT for any partition that file informations stored in it.

when you delete a file, the information of that file in FAT marked as deleted. but raw data of that file is still on your hard disk.

this technique makes deleting files very fast, because it is not require to fill file that with a lot of Zero

Answer 8

I heard that it is just overwritten with blank info. With freeware of the internet you can get the file(s) back. So it's kind of hidden from the computer.

P.S. It may get overwritten so much it's past revival

Answer 9

open performance information and tools click on open disk clean up follow instructions

Answer 10

idk...i wanna kno too....