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Document/file retention question

Started by Shit Good Nose, September 23, 2020, 02:24:44 PM

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Shit Good Nose

As I'm now going to be an almost-full time home worker, I'm being issued with a spanky new half decent work laptop at some point in the near future, which renders this old personal one I'm using (for work only) surplus to requirements.  Although it's just over 5 years old, it's still in full working order and not too slow.  No need for it here at home (Mrs Nose has her work desktop PC here at the moment, and we all share a decent gaming laptop for our respective needs) so I'm going to chuck it on eBay.  I don't want to do a full disk format as it's got some legit but grey-market software that will presumably help it sell, but won't come back with a fresh Widnows install (Office 365, Norton Pro, CAD etc).  However, as I've been using it for work there's obviously a lot of stuff (which I'll obvs be deleting) that is and has been on there which is confidential/sensitive/GDPR nightmares etc.  I've asked our IT department for advice, but as it's my own laptop they're non-committal.

Tl;dr - is there a way of ensuring those files and documents can't be retrieved, or at least so corrupted they can't be read properly when opened?

QDRPHNC

This article might help.

And for your own peace of mind, you could always use a program like Disk Drill to try to recover the deleted files, just to make sure they're gone.

Consignia


Shit Good Nose

^^
Thank you both.  In that case it looks like I'm already comfortably covered, as I already use both File Shredder and CCleaner (I see I also already have Recuva, but it doesn't look like I've ever used it since installing it), without really realising it.  I've never really fully understood how you can delete something to make space on a hard drive but the deleted file is still recoverable.

Also, props to you QDRPHNC for finding an article with a built-in link to a balding remedy.

QDRPHNC

Think those are based on your browsing history, aren't they?

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 23, 2020, 02:45:53 PM
I've never really fully understood how you can delete something to make space on a hard drive but the deleted file is still recoverable.

Deletion just marks the space on the drive available so the data is in limbo until something overwrites it.

Imagine you're a town planner and you allocate an old school to be sold off to property developers. On your plan the space ceases to be the school, but the buildings and that still exist until Balfour Beatty come along and pull it all down.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: QDRPHNC on September 23, 2020, 03:03:55 PM
Think those are based on your browsing history, aren't they?

No, Shredder deletes files, documents and folders, and CCleaner (even in its free version) can delete/overwrite disk space along with clearing history.


Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 23, 2020, 03:22:04 PM
Deletion just marks the space on the drive available so the data is in limbo until something overwrites it.

Imagine you're a town planner and you allocate an old school to be sold off to property developers. On your plan the space ceases to be the school, but the buildings and that still exist until Balfour Beatty come along and pull it all down.

And then BB manage to fuck it all up in the process (#speakingfromexperience).

It's okay - a couple of peeps on here have tried to explain it to me in the past.  I get the gist of it, I'm just a bit of an idiot when it comes to the techie ins and outs of these things.  As my quickie Paint contributions prove.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 23, 2020, 03:30:58 PM
Quote from: QDRPHNC on September 23, 2020, 03:03:55 PM
Think those are based on your browsing history, aren't they?
No, Shredder deletes files, documents and folders, and CCleaner (even in its free version) can delete/overwrite disk space along with clearing history.

I think he was referring to the baldness ads!

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 23, 2020, 03:30:58 PM
I get the gist of it, I'm just a bit of an idiot when it comes to the techie ins and outs of these things.  As my quickie Paint contributions prove.

Imagine you've got a lot of videotapes of old tv shows.  They're in cupboards and drawers, some in a box in the cupboard under the stairs.  To keep track of them all you numbered all the tapes and made a note of them in a little book.   You decide you don't like Robocop (tape #207) any more and you want to tape over it so you find it in the book and cross it out.  Until you actually tape over it the film is still there on the tape and you can still watch it.

Your computer also keeps an index of the files.  Deleting a file removes it from the index but the actual data is still there until it's overwritten with another file.

Shit Good Nose

Whilst it is true I used to number my tapes and keep logbook of what was on them...

Quote from: JesusAndYourBush on September 23, 2020, 04:57:28 PM
You decide you don't like Robocop (tape #207) any more and you want to tape over it

I'm deeply offended by even the suggestion of this.


But yes, I basically get it.  I'm still a techie idiot though.  I'll never be a Microsoft certified IT bod.