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Re: Deleting files

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Am 17.07.2014 14:55, schrieb Peter Percival:
> It is my belief (and you may be quite sure I know absolutely nothing
> about the matter) that when I delete a file under Windows 7 what
> actually happens is that the space used by the file is marked as
> available for new file creation.  So the supposedly deleted file might
> hang around for sometime before it gets written over; and even then it
> might be readable because some residual magnetism (? or something)
> remains on the disk which can be read by specialised hardware or software.
>
> So, two questions:
> i) is there a file deleting program that will write random data over the
> deleted file?
> ii) To take care of files already deleted but not in the thorough way
> envisaged under i), is there a free space cleaning program that will
> write random data over the free space?

There are two aspects:

Is the data confidential or secret?

If it is only confidential you simply might use an encrypted 
directory/partition which allows access while you are using it and keeps 
it at other times encrypted.

For overwriting unused space with zeros or random data you might use 
"sdelete" (for Windows) which is free.

If you intend selling a hard disk "sdelete" should be enough to prevent 
the casual snooper from accessing the data.
A professional alternative is always taking the drive apart and smashing 
the parts to pieces.

If the data is secret, protection depends on whether you have more 
resources than those who want your data.
Your chances are slim as you have no idea of how many backdoors there 
are already provided by your operating system/programs/hardware.

cu
Peter

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Thread

Deleting files Peter Percival <peterxpercival@hotmail.com> - 2014-07-17 13:55 +0100
  Re: Deleting files Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2014-07-17 14:28 +0000
  Re: Deleting files scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter) - 2014-07-17 14:30 +0000
    Re: Deleting files Peter Percival <peterxpercival@hotmail.com> - 2014-07-17 18:09 +0100
  Re: Deleting files Adrian C <email@here.invalid> - 2014-07-17 15:30 +0100
  Re: Deleting files Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2014-07-17 16:12 +0000
    Re: Deleting files Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-07-17 17:58 +0100
      Re: Deleting files Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk> - 2014-07-17 20:14 +0100
    Re: Deleting files Dario Niedermann <dnied@tiscali.it> - 2014-07-22 00:10 +0200
  Re: Deleting files Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2014-07-17 17:28 +0100
  Re: Deleting files Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2014-07-17 14:01 -0400
    Re: Deleting files Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2014-07-17 19:04 +0100
  Re: Deleting files Peter Mc Donough <mcd-mail-lists@gmx.net> - 2014-07-17 21:12 +0200
    Re: Deleting files Peter Percival <peterxpercival@hotmail.com> - 2014-07-18 11:41 +0100
      Re: Deleting files Peter Mc Donough <mcd-mail-lists@gmx.net> - 2014-07-18 13:36 +0200

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