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FIND OUT?!
I heard that the police can take your computer, and like find out stuff like confersations even though you deleted it from your history and form your recycling bin.
Is that true? And how do they do it?
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Maybe give some free advice about: Random Weirdos?
police can take your computer and trace anything that has been on it as long as it is still in the recycle bin. but they cannot take your computer or any other posession unless they have reason to believe there is evidence of a crime on it.
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Yes, they can. When you delete a file from the recycle bin, your computer marks the space it was occupying as unused, but doesn't actually overwrite the information. If you have a large hard disk, it could be months before another application overwrites that space.
If the information hasn't been overwritten, it is recoverable. If the *entire* bit of information is intact, you can recover it using a free program like this:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
If part of the information has been overwritten, you need to hire a data recovery specialist to get it back. Only the part that wasn't overwritten can be recovered. This costs lots of money, but the police will do it.
If all of the data is overwritten, it's nearly impossible for it to be recovered. Especially on small disks, it might be *possible*, but extremely expensive, to recover data that has been overwritten only once. If it has been overwritten more than once, it's probably gone for good. The department of defense overwrites sensitive files 3-5 times; paranoid people use the Gutmann method, which shreds it a full 35 times.
To overwrite a file, you have a few options. I recommend FileShredder:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
To overwrite already deleted files, go to "shred free disk space", you can choose the number of times it is overwritten there; anything over 3 is overkill.
You can also use eraser:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Eraser has more options than FileShredder, including scheduling, but it's buggy and poorly maintained. To overwrite already deleted files, go to "On-Demand"(left), then "new task"(windows logo in the upper left), then "shred free disk space". Choose your disk and the number of passes and run it. Eraser tends to freeze in the middle of erasing.
You can also use this little file to *only* erase free disk space:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
It overwrites only once(unless you run it twice). It opens a command-line window(black box), which needs to stay open for it to run.
History isn't erased this way. Read my answer here:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Good luck!
(Please don't delete this question, I put extra time into it so future users can stumble onto it with Google; they can't if you delete it)
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