Can deleted file be recovered?

[ahpuiahsan]

Just read an interesting articles regarding restoration of deleted files (even permanently deleted) of a PC can be recovered.

Data such as sensitive documents, personnel passwords, websites visited (porn surfers beware :twisted: ) can be easily restored back by some programs even though it is deleted.

Quote :-

When most computers delete a file, they do not actually remove the contents of the file. Instead, they simply unlink the file from the file directory system, leaving the contents of the file in the disk sectors. This data will remain there until the operating system reuses those sectors to write new data. Until the old data is overwritten (and this may take months or longer), it can be recovered by programs that read disk sectors directly, such as forensic software (so called because it is used to obtain evidence in criminal investigations and also in legal discovery).

In addition even if a sector is overwritten the phenomenon of data remanence can make deleted data forensically recoverable.

In order to be sure that a deleted file is really deleted, it is necessary to overwrite the data sectors of that file. This process is not simply ?erasing? or ?formatting? the drives; this is not sufficient, as there are numerous tools available to recover ?lost? data on disk drives.

Unquote

Beware if you wanna sell your PC to a second-hand dealers, they might be able to recover your files and expose your secrets.

The best way safeguard yourself is to completely destroy your PC. :wink:

[sabaisabai]

not that i hv g14 classified info on my computer...but i will use a DOD compliant tool to erase all of my data incase i need to sell my computer to finance my trip to thailand.

[Nelis]

There are programs available that will "wipe" your hard disk, this means the program will overwrite it with random data. You can set this to as many passes as you like.

[khun_lung]

I have no secrets.

So why do I piss on the hard drive whenever I change computers?