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Deleted files on a computer..or are they?
So, a friend told me that files you delete aren't entirely wiped off your computer; traces of them remain on your computer "so computer geeks can tap into them later". Is this true? If so, how the hell can I get rid of them? I'm really pressed for space as it is, I don't want deleted files lurking in my hard drive. >.>
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Want to answer more questions in the Technology category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Computers?
If you go into your trash, you can completely wipe them off.
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Deleted files do not actually take up useable disk space. When a file is deleted the reference in memory to what was there is erased. The physical space on the hard disk will continue to be taken up by the file until the computer happens to overwrite it during normal processing.
Recovery has a general time limit based on the used space and the number of times the space that the old file was on has been overwritten. With regular use, your deleted file will be gone in a few months and be pretty much unrecoverable. If you have files you need to be unrecoverable you need a file shredder. Financial documents you are deleting are a perfect example of files you might well want gone when you delete them (say if you wanted to take your computer to Best Buy and didn't want the tech seeing a spread sheet with bank account numbers and such) and file shredders do the job by overwriting the space on the drive repeatedly with nonsense code so that programs cannot recover them.
Google "safer Networking" and download spybot search and destroy. It's a handy little anti-spyware program which comes with a file shredder in it's toolset you can use.
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Well, your friend is right, at least partially.
Even when you delete a file permanently (by emptying your bin for example), traces can remain and the file may be recoverable with the right software. Now, the deleted file does not take up memory, so you wont gain extra space by wiping its traces off the hard disk.
Basically, the more the hard disk is used, i.e. the more data is recorded and erased over the same area, the less likely it is that software recovery tools can find these traces. Also, if I am not mistaken, someone needs to know what they are looking for to find these files (but do not quote me on that one).
Now, there are solutions, and these are programs that "sanitize" the free space on your drive. Most often they are also internet erasers - permanently deleting tracks left from your internet browsing (since clearing history in your browser does not remove everything). I have not used these for a while, but most used to provide fully functioning free trials.
I will dig up a few options. Otherwise google "internet eraser" or "hard disk eraser" or something like this. Internet erasers usually have the function built in (look for their list of functions which should say something like clean free disk space and/or permanently delete files).
Here are some I dug up which appear to have free trials (keep in mind I have not actually tested these myself):
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Good luck.
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