Computer geeks, can you answer this?

Question

If one deletes all files from the hard drive of specific data, and deletes all cookies relating to the data (at least all that could be found), and uses the disk clean up program, can an individual still locate these files somewhere in the programing of the hard drive?

Answer 1

actually the answer is yes they can,if you didnt format the hard drive,File information is maintained in a directory so your operating system can find it. All that “delete” does is erase the file’s reference information. Your OS can’t find it, but the data is still there.until you use a good erase program to erase the files proper,the data is still there and with a good recovery program the data can be located.i have included a link for you to read and maybe that will help you out.the second link is a free utlilty to securely erase whats on the free space that was made when you deleted those files.it is called disk reactor.

Answer 2

Yes, it is possible. Simply deleting a file does only one thing to the file...it writes two zeroes at the beginning of the file to tell the computer that it "can" overwrite anything following the two zeroes. However, everything following the two zeroes is still intact.

The military does something called a "triple wipe" on all erased or discarded hard drives. It writes zeroes across the entire hard drive in ALL data spaces, and does this three times, to ensure that ALL data has been overwritten by zeroes...not just the beginning of files. This would prevent the hard drive from being read after deleting files.

Answer 3

Ordinary folks can never get them back. If a geek wanted to - the deleted files would reappear in a heartbeat. If it was me hired to do it, step one would be to boot Linux from the CD. Then your data would reappear to the extent that you'd wiped the drive or had $ to spend. Most such recovery is trivial.

To explain, file data is only marked as deleted in the fragment headers, so utility programs can automate recovery of deleted files - or portions thereof - even after more files have been created. Those undelete programs - some of them I mean - are free. Just Google for "file undelete" and download one - on another machine.

The above assumes you are speaking of Windows operating system formats. Files systems under another OS will take different tools. Many, many different file system structures exist - most of which automate defrag'ing and sometimes data recovery too.

If a forensics expert - a geek with lots of toys - is involved and money is no object, some data can be extracted even after the best DoD wiping programs have been used. That's why the sledge hammer* is the best security device - or a heavy-duty metal shredder.

Good luck!

* From the Geek Manual:

Data deletion - permanent.

Hammer the hard drive - platter only- until flat - from the narrowest edge. Repeat twice more. Beat the result to be thinner than paper - preferably onion skin. Feed the metal sheet through a heavy-duty shredder. Twice. Melt the fragments at 2000 degrees. Burn the ashes using pure oxygen. Take ashes to the nearest white water river. Immediately after a heavy thunderstorm, distribute ashes directly into a haystack - slowly - very slowly.

Answer 4

When a file is deleted from your computer, its contents aren’t immediately destroyed. Windows simply marks the hard drive space as being available for use by changing one character in the file table so that the file entry won’t be displayed in My Computer or a commandline DIR command, etc. If you manage to start an undeletion process before Windows uses that part of the hard drive to write a new file, all you have to do is set that flag back to “on,” and you get the file. Pretty cool, eh?

Answer 5

Even if you are successful in deleting the files and all references to them it would be simple to see them with a simple program. Only way to avoid it is to do a government wipe, commonly called a low level format that writes bogus data over the files making them unrecoverable. They are programs where you can selectively do such a wipe over specific folders without having to wipe the entire drive.

Answer 6

Yes, more than likely. You can get 'bleaching' programs such as what they have with Windows Washer that would make it just about impossible for anyone except maybe the CIA or FBI to get anything out of it. Bleaching writes a bunch of junk directly over the same sectors of the drive, then erases, and writes something else, then erases several times, so it it hard to patch together again, if not impossible. However, most people forget all about the backup that Windows makes with some versions and they do all that, but it is all easily retrieved again with the backup copy.

Answer 7

You can still recover files from your hard drive... if you have the right equipment (such as File Scavenger). Just deleting them won't help. If you want to permanently delete files, you need a program such as BCWipe.

Answer 8

Yes, I've had games that were 1 hour demos and I deleted absolutly everything I could find on a game and deleted it. And sure enough, I would reinstall the game and it said my 1 hour was used up. Where on my hdd was that info I missed? And formatting doesnot hide program files to professionals. You have to format 4 or 5 times for the info to be destroyed.

Answer 9

Yes, unless someone made sure to make the files unrecoverable by running a disk wipe program on the free space on the drive, such as Eraser.

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Answer 10

yes, it can be recovered even after upto 25 overwrites, so the data is b\never completely gone , unless of course you put a strong magnetic field to work! however, normal users are deterred by a simple format or overwriting a few times using s/w available freely on the net.