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Post by The Lazy One on Aug 23, 2009 21:31:27 GMT -5
I found this on the Internet as a way to permanently delete files from your computer.
You open a command prompt window, and type cipher /w:driveletter:foldername and it permanently deletes files. Does this actually work? I'm getting a new hard drive soon and want to clear the old one before I transfer my data over (got a lot of random junk I don't want anymore and probably is slowing my PC down).
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Post by Mantorok on Aug 23, 2009 21:49:11 GMT -5
If you want to improve performance, do a defrag. Cipher doesn't offer any performance benefits, it's a security tool. Deleted files are simply deallocated, but the data isn't changed. Cipher overwrites the data so that recovering the data becomes a much more difficult task.
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Post by The Lazy One on Aug 23, 2009 22:01:03 GMT -5
If you want to improve performance, do a defrag. Cipher doesn't offer any performance benefits, it's a security tool. Deleted files are simply deallocated, but the data isn't changed. Cipher overwrites the data so that recovering the data becomes a much more difficult task. Alright, thanks. I'll defrag tomorrow morning then.
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Post by RavynousHunter on Aug 25, 2009 15:41:05 GMT -5
The only ways I know of to permanently get rid of files (as in making the irrecoverable) is either A, reformat the drive, or B, use a file shredder.
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Post by SimSim on Aug 25, 2009 15:59:02 GMT -5
Reformat the drive, then fill the drive up with random binary, lather rinse repeat 3-7 times. DoD certified way to make files unrecoverable.
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Post by RavynousHunter on Aug 25, 2009 16:25:54 GMT -5
Yeah, that works, too. Of course, its only as good as the RNG you got runnin' the operation.
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Post by SimSim on Aug 25, 2009 16:27:13 GMT -5
True.
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Post by Napoleon the Clown on Aug 26, 2009 7:39:11 GMT -5
Well, if you don't care about the drive being usable after... Pass a strong magnet/electromagnet over the drive a few times.
The "Delete, defrag, fill up with useless shit, repeat a few times" trick is time consuming, but works. Simply deleting the file just removes the pointers to the file. The file itself is still there. Until it gets overwritten. Hence the "Delete, defrag, fill drive with bullshit" trick.
Physically destroying the drive would do the trick, too.
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Lazuline
Full Member
Subarashii!
Posts: 140
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Post by Lazuline on Aug 26, 2009 10:06:07 GMT -5
It depends on how paranoid you are. If you're just concerned about some random person finding it and recovering files via software, overwriting everything once should be plenty. If you're trying to hide stuff from the FBI or some such, that takes a lot more work than you'd expect.
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Post by katz on Aug 26, 2009 20:36:15 GMT -5
Man, I cannot tell you how many of my friends have bought stuff from people who should have read this thread. Manys hours of lulz have been had from stuff left on used laptops/cameras/phones/iPods. Most recently a massive fucking collection of gay and FtM porn on a laptop my friend bought from her mom's female friend.
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Post by wmdkitty on Aug 27, 2009 2:51:34 GMT -5
Man, I cannot tell you how many of my friends have bought stuff from people who should have read this thread. Manys hours of lulz have been had from stuff left on used laptops/cameras/phones/iPods. Most recently a massive fucking collection of gay and FtM porn on a laptop my friend bought from her mom's female friend. ; Somehow, I don't think your friend looks at that person quite the same way, now.
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Post by Sigmaleph on Aug 27, 2009 12:44:42 GMT -5
Man, I cannot tell you how many of my friends have bought stuff from people who should have read this thread. Manys hours of lulz have been had from stuff left on used laptops/cameras/phones/iPods. Most recently a massive fucking collection of gay and FtM porn on a laptop my friend bought from her mom's female friend. I've never found something quite like this, but once, I got an old computer that used to be in my dad's office. I never did tell him some of the things his employees downloaded...
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Post by The Lazy One on Aug 27, 2009 17:01:39 GMT -5
Man, I cannot tell you how many of my friends have bought stuff from people who should have read this thread. Manys hours of lulz have been had from stuff left on used laptops/cameras/phones/iPods. Most recently a massive fucking collection of gay and FtM porn on a laptop my friend bought from her mom's female friend. Haha, my dad bought an old computer off Craigslist that he was going to give to my younger brother. He told me to plug it in and see if it worked, so I did. Much to my surprise, the person who had the computer before me had been using it to create what could best be described as a badly-drawn hentai comic. After getting over my "LOL BAD ART!" initial reflex, I had to tell my dad that, no, my brother could not use this computer until we wiped the hard drive. So he reformatted the drive. Since he was going to let my 12-year-old brother use it, he didn't trust me enough to actually get all of the uh... questionable material off of it. I don't know if he used a file shredder on top of reformatting, but I do know that that computer is basically blank now.
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Post by katz on Aug 27, 2009 20:33:37 GMT -5
Man, I cannot tell you how many of my friends have bought stuff from people who should have read this thread. Manys hours of lulz have been had from stuff left on used laptops/cameras/phones/iPods. Most recently a massive fucking collection of gay and FtM porn on a laptop my friend bought from her mom's female friend. ; Somehow, I don't think your friend looks at that person quite the same way, now. Really, after getting liqoured up and watching a few of them, we don't look at some things the same way. After a few drinks, it's hard to tell what's a micropenis and what's a testosterone-enlarged clitoris. Yeah, there are fetish videos with men with medically small penises.
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Post by RavynousHunter on Aug 28, 2009 13:48:13 GMT -5
My dad once got a computer off some guy bout 13 years back that had a bunch of files relating to the security at NASA. Things like floor plans, what kind of security was where, the kind of cryptography they used. It was a sad day when we lost that drive...truly a sad day.
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