Question about computer stuff.

[Livingvsdying25]

Sooooo I was watching an episode of "Forensic Files" with my mom (it'ss her new tv obsession... I find it interesting tho so)
anyway... In this episode it mentions computers and how this dude deleted things bit with computers, it just removes the presence of it, not the history made in the harddrive.

Im is not high tech computer savvy so I hope I explained that correctly...

It got me thinking tho if the the the family wanted to how far could they dig? & how would they go about that?

How do I prevent that as much as possible? What s I of computer-wise when I CTB/

 

[sleepy dog]

What are you trying to delete? Why do you want to prevent it?

 

[AnnonyBox]

If you're worried about the site, as I understand it, it's safe. Technically it's true, a hard drive is rewritable and information can be retrieved once deleted, places tend to make a lot of money overcharging to restore deleted vacation photos. Would an investigation into a suicide go that far? I doubt it, but I don't know. The only real way to ensure you've erased yourself is to destroy your hard drive.

 

[k75]

If you're feeling really paranoid, a factory reset is generally more than enough.

I'm sure you could get away with less. Unless you're into some serious shit online they're going to be investigating, nobody is going to dig very deep.

 

[Finis Autem Spero]

Unless you've done some real bad shit, I wouldn't worry about it. Just deletion should be fine. If you want to be really sure your family/friends can't recover anything easily then find something that overwrites the deleted data X amount of times. Google secure delete tools, for example, and I'm sure something there will be fit for your purposes.

If you're really paranoid, you could set up an elaborate rube goldberg machine that starts with you ctb and ends with your drive being fully melted by thermite.

 

[waterbottleman]

Im not a computer expert (studied math in college and have learned programming/IT on my own and at my job) but I know a decent amount.

Basically when you delete something from your computer it's not really deletEd. The data is still there on your hard drive, you can just no longer access it. You can download data retrieval programs that allow you to get back data you've deleted.

However there are programs you can download that make it way more difficult/virtually impossible to retrieve the data once it's been deleted.

if you want to delete certain files and have them not be retrievable, take a look at a program called Eraser.

if you want to nuke/wipe your entire hard drive so that all the data on your hard drive is gone look up a Program called dban (Make sure to read the instructions On how to use it). A note of caution with using dban, it really deletes ALL your data off your hard drive, everything. Even your entire operating system gets nuked into oblivion. So if you have a Windows computer I recommend you write down your windows ID number somewhere just in case you wipe your hard drive then decide to restore your comp and use it again.

if you want to go hard core, you can use dban on your hard drive, then physically destroy your hard drive.

 

[Eternal Pessimist]

If you're really worried about this you could encrypt your hard drive. This coupled with a strong enough password makes it virtually impossible for anyone to access your files unless they actually know your password.

 

[k75]

It seems to me like that would make them want to dig to see what you were hiding. Just having a deleted hard drive isn't nearly as suspicious.

 

[Manja]

What about phone?

 

[k75]

Factory reset.

 

[Eternal Pessimist]

All iPhones and pretty much all Android devices encrypt the data if you have set-up some kind of a screen lock, which you should do anyway in case the phone is lost/stolen. You can also set them to reset the phone after a certain number of wrong guesses of the password.

 

[Manja]

Factory reset.

Is that enough?

 

[k75]

Is that enough?

I think so. All your data will be gone. Nobody is going to bother to try to restore anything unless they have a good reason.

 

[Manja]

Yeah that's what I meant, if they can restore it...

 

[k75]

I don't think so, but if they can it's not likely to be easy or cheap. A friend of mine had his hard drive crash and wants to restore the deleted files. All the programs he tried failed, so his only option is to do it professionally, which is several hundred dollars and not guaranteed. I know it's not the same thing as we're talking about here, but I think its a good indicator.

I'm confident a factory reset is enough. When you reset a computer, it gives you a warning saying you data will be deleted forever if you proceed.

 

[Berlin76]

Sooooo I was watching an episode of "Forensic Files" with my mom (it'ss her new tv obsession... I find it interesting tho so)
anyway... In this episode it mentions computers and how this dude deleted things bit with computers, it just removes the presence of it, not the history made in the harddrive.

Im is not high tech computer savvy so I hope I explained that correctly...

It got me thinking tho if the the the family wanted to how far could they dig? & how would they go about that?

How do I prevent that as much as possible? What s I of computer-wise when I CTB/

Just use a file shredder program.
The best is eraser.ie and file shredder.
They can erase unused disk space and files

Is that enough?

Noo is not enough
You really need to rewrite over the places oon the disk multiple times.

Usw eraser or file shredder they are the best software to delete the place where the files were located

 

[k75]

Noo is not enough
You really need to rewrite over the places oon the disk multiple times.

Usw eraser or file shredder they are the best software to delete the place where the files were located

They were asking about a phone, though. It seems like a lot.

 

[TAW122]

Many suggestions here are good, and as far as destroying or ruining your hard drive, a magnet would do lots of damage to it, likely putting it out of commission for good. Then for good measure, a sledge hammer would really ensure that is it FUBAR. Yes, the comments about overwriting it with many passes is correct too, but physical destruction of the hard drive is one of the most surefire ways that people won't ever likely be able to retrieve it. (While there are some people who will try to retrieve data or any info from a hard drive, the likelihood of that is slim to none because authorities are not as likely to devote that much resources and time over a suicide vs a high profile case).