When is a file actually deleted?

i know that in KDE3.0 you can do move to trash (del) delete (shift+del) or shread (crtl+shift+del) the last one overwrites the file i think 30 times........... not really 100% sure if its random character replacement or if it just dose character adition like is easy to do and easy to recover........ so in conclusion, use KDE, and re compile the code so that when you hit del it dose the shread command and when you do ctrl+shift+del it dose the move to trash command

Rofl cwk9, your post was hilarious! Maybe I'll write a newbie hacker guide, and tell them to get a vat of battery acid and put it beside their computer.

There are many programs out there that can truly delete the file. Like, for linux, the program wipe, will wipe over the sector of the drive the file was, with another, as many times as you would like. It does not take very long either. :)

You can use PGP/GPG to 'wipe' your files off of the disk. Which in my understanding overwrites that data, how ever many times you choose to do so. Also, what about encrypting the files first, then 'wiping' them? So that if it were to be recovered, they would still have to unencrypt the file.

Actually, a portable h/d would be pretty sweet and a good idea, maybe expensive, but sweet.

i dont think the NSA can retrieve a file that has been over written 24 times, just delete the file in good old dos. and the file is GONE.

illv //

illv--> no, DOS only deletes the reference in the FAT. the data is still there and can easly be re constructed just by pointing to it again without overwriting the data. if its "deleted" then its like a peice of paper thats sitting in your trashcan (real trashcan, not puter one)..... anyone wanting to and knowing how can go rummaging thru it. once it gets overwritten then its like the garbage truck taking away your trash. the more times it gets overwritten the more layers of trash get piled on top of it at the dump. they can still read it when its in your trashcan, and they can read it after 4-5 overwrites (if there lucky) the NSA claims 24 overwrites cause thats what there best recovery has been, and that was probly testing with a known data to recover. the NSA will be infanatly lucky to read something thats been over written 10 times, and then thats only of they REALLY wanna pour all that money and experteese into reading your emails. hell, id say that if they got binladens hdd theyd be hard pressed to put that much money into it.

also, you might wanna look up some data recovery companys online, send them a hdd, they send you everything that they can recover from it, and its ALOT! another thing, in windows every little time that it works with a file it gets cached, in your nice little swap file most likely so thats TWO places that every file gets saved

there ARE portable hdds, about the size of cd players. I saw one that used firewire and one that used both firewire/usb 2.0..........i'm searching for a link, if i find one, i'll edit and post it

{sorry if this has already been said, i just kinda browsed through, and noticed a 'that would be sweet if......'}

Your best bet, like me is to keep a few removable hdd laying around. the like cwk9 said just dump it in the battery acid. but it is a good suggestion. i found a program called kill disk. just ask me and ill send it too ya. it takes about 30 seconds to "kill disk"

If i were that dude, you know what I would do?


let me explain:


first, I would properly remove my hard drive(s) from my computer, and place it at the peak of my two-story house. then I'd kick it off as hard as I can and watch it fly into the middle of the street and get ran over a few times. then I'd take it to my back yard and steal my neighbors speed boat. I'd then fill the boat with gasoline and a really long-ass wick to blow it up. then I'd make surethat the ashes were completely scattered throughout my town. then I might at least feel sae about it. I might even decide to move asap :)

Just a newbie suggestion here....but why not go to techtv.com, search for a program that fully deletes files off your hard drive, then hop on over to download.com and find a file recovery program. Then..once you got them all going on the same system, create a notepad document, then delete it and see if you can pull it back up. Never have done this before, but dont chance an agent bashing into your door and just opening up your case to rip out the hd. They have some very, very wicked file recovery programs out there.