files left on the hard drive???

Question

i've heard that even when you delete files, an image of it is still left in the hard drive, so i was wondering is it possible to erase these images or copies, i mean COMPELETELY earase the file from the hard drive? and do these files(that have already been deleted, but still has the image on the hard drive) affect your pc's performance and amount of free space??

Answer 1

The way the computer keeps track of files is that it has a Table which keeps track of where everything is on your hard drive. Think of this like a map. The way it deletes files is to erase the entry, like deleting the route on the map. So everythign is still there, the computer just cant find it anymore. Eventually since the computer sees that spot as empty, it will be overwritten by new data.



There are programs you can get that will automatically overwrite the area of the file you deleted with random data so that it is really gone.(I believe its something like 6 rewrites before any data is totally unrecoverable) http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/shred.htm for one.



As for will this effect the performance or free space on your computer, the answer is no, once you empty your recycle bin, its as good as gone according to Windows.

Answer 2

There is no image left on the harddisk once you format it.. rather the file as a whole lies.. the only thing that vanishes is the link between your file-system table and the file itself.. Once the link is deleted the file does not occupies a single bit, and can be easily ignored an overwritten automatically.. This files are only a problem if you intensionally want to retrieve it..

For permanent deletion follow complete format instead of quick..

Answer 3

If you've formatted the hard drive, and want to make sure no one can recover from it, then either install an operating system to it, or start filling it with files.

Files can be recovered from a partition, format etc. (I heard it takes 7 times of formatting to get rid of it so files are useless)

Once you write back over them though, there is very little chance of getting much more than corrupted files back.

There are programs out there that will apparently wipe your hard drive good and proper though, just do a search for 'file shredders' or 'delete files for good' in a search engine :)

Answer 4

you can't completely erase these files, but i'm 99.99% sure that no one is going to be able to have the necessary skills to find them and open, and tell the word your business.



even if you format your disk those files will still be there burried under the last format because you're just writing over the last install of windows/mac.



in answer, they don't affect your pc's performance and amount of free space. These files are overwritten with new files. I wouldn't worry about it :)

Answer 5

If you wana shell out money, which you normally have to do in this case then this is the website for you:



http://www.squidoo.com/deletefiles-i



What I do is I just open the

-C drive

-go to the tools tab and click folder options

-go to the view tab and click show hidden files and folders

-click OK

-go to program files, documents and settings, and temp

-delete all files that I know off that might be like the objects I'm trying to get rid of

-Warning-

-after that I go into the registry and delete keys that were used in those programs

-but if you don't know anything about the registry then go to this website and it cleans your registry for you:



http://www.download.com/Glary-Registry-Repair/3000-2086_4-10372101.html?tag=lst-6&cdlPid=10844409



This product is free so sometimes it glitches a couple things up which is why you wanna save the backups before you clean your registry.



Hope this helps and good luck!

Answer 6

Here is the deal. Let's say you wrote a letter, printed it and then saved it to your hard drive. When you save an item your computer puts an address on it that does two things. it allows you to retrieve it and it prevents the computer from overwriting it. When you delete the letter, all the computer does is take away the address, the letter stays there. With the address gone, it prevents you from retrieving it and it allow the computer to overwrite it when space is needed..but it is still there.



The only way you can really clean everything off is to re-format your whole hard drive. That is a big job and requires the hard drive to be completely clean of everything then you have to reinstall everything...everything like all operating systems and programs you had on it before the reformat.

Answer 7

you can get some windows utilites that instead of just erasing the marker to the file in the file allocation Table they also write zero's over the file location to remove its trace completely.



If you are using a Mac or Linux this can be done by default using the Secure erase function rather than the erase - it takes ages (15 minutes for a 100MB file rather than the 15 seconds for standard erase)

Answer 8

RAM is a non everlasting memory that without postpone loses its contents whilst ability is faraway from it. it is that this high quality that makes RAM chips quickly so as that desktops can calculate. If there replaced into something left in RAM after the flexibility has been faraway from the chips, it could take technologies that the traditional individual could desire to not have the money for. to declare that not something could desire to be recovered is presuming lots yet so little is left on the chips that in spite of could desire to be recovered if it extremely is in any respect conceivable could be enormously lots ineffective.