Cleaning up a hard drive

[marylandeer]

Anybody have any ways to clear out the "memory" on this computer. I don't have any kiddie porn or any thing, but I'd be more comfortable if I erased the hard drive of videos, etc.....especially any trace of postings on this site. I know I can use the "delete" function in Internet Explorer, but I haven't found a comparable function in Firefox.

Also, is there a temp folder where internet videos are stored on the hard drive. I know I've used this computer a couple time to check out the videos in the T&A Board

[Trad]

Depending on the sophistication of any examination of your drives concerning you, "delete" does next to nothing. In addition to deleting all cache files, temporary folders, logs, index files etc, you need to use a wipe program which overwrites everything several times with random 000111001s. I know Norton has software that conforms to government wipe security standards and I'm sure other commercial software is available. there might even be free wipe software out there.

Unless you actually overwrite the space on your hard drive all the data is still there and accessible with software like EnCase and Forensic Toolkit. I've had numerous cases where incriminating deleted images or files were recovered.

[displacedeerfan]

Back up what you want to keep via external HD, make sure you have a valid copy of your OS and then do a DOD wipe of your HDD.

[ratsafari]

send me the hard drive and I'll smash that fucker into little itty bitty pieces.

just depends on how hard your old bosses will be looking at your computer. Will they be crawling up your ass with a fine tooth comb or not basically giving a shit

[HuffNfeffeR]

There is a program called BC wipe that will do DOD deleting and wipe all the free space and cache...at least I think. I used it for a couple old hard drives that we had used for taxes and stuff...

I think it was free, but it has been several years.

[marylandeer]

Well, I haven't gotten any notices of ethical (or criminal) violations yet, so I should be okay.

[Kenneth]

This is why I will always have my own computer.

[marylandeer]

My new work computer isn't as great as the last one. It is a Tablet PC though, so I can fold the screen over and watch porn like a real TV. That works out much better for me.

[wvudale]

There are also two other programs out there to help with this sort of thing. CCleaner and Eraser....If you use these two in conjunction, your files will be virtually nonrecoverable without sending out to some FBI forensic scientists.