Questions tagged [deletion]
Secure deletion of data.
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Why use random value when overwriting files?
Often when I see people talking about safe deletion, I see lots of advice's that you should use random values to overwrite. My question is why is it better or more efficient than filling all bytes ...
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How to delete one exe file that is probably malware?
I stupidly saved an .exe file that claimed to be an urgent Firefox patch (318K).
I haven't (and won't) run it, but how can I delete it so that it's gone, i.e. no risk to my Win7 laptop?
I thought of ...
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Write to selected disk location to overwrite deleted file
I know that every file on a computer is written to a specific disk location. Using Python I want to locate the file and overwrite it in order for it to be impossible to retrieve it. Using an SSD I ...
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Are deleted offline calendar events in Android actually deleted?
When an Android app deletes a calendar event in a local (offline / non-synced) calendar, does Android's Calendar Storage (com.android.providers.calendar) actually delete the event or does it just flag ...
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How do I wipe a disk that DBAN can't read?
I have a Samsung 850 SSD that has recently been dying on me -- there appear to be some memory issues. I'm considering sending in the drive for replacement under the warranty program, but it contains ...
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Are files deleted before encrypting then formatted able to be retrieved?
On a drive I have a folder of files, I then just soft delete these files (not wiping them or overwriting with any data). After I soft delete them I encrypt the drive and wipe it with a single quick ...
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How to securely delete full vm
We have a Windows 7 virtual machine on VMware Workstation 11. The VM is now encrypted (using Workstation) but wasn’t always. The VM has confidential information on it and as we no longer need it, we ...
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Can a full SSD or HDD recover deleted data?
I've always been curious. It may be a stupid question but what if you deleted a file then filled up the SSD or HDD. Could your deleted data be recovered or is it physically impossible? I know Windows ...
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Can data be restored from a hard drive after using magnets to wipe the data? [duplicate]
Can a 512GB SATA hard disk be successfully restored after using magnets to wipe off it's data?
From the movie: "The Core", https://youtu.be/g3KPSyNxnL8, rat using magnets to wipe his drive and puts ...
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To what extent does formatting a disk (securely) remove its data?
If the goal is to make data no longer retrievable, how secure is it to format the disk? I assumed formatting the disk overwrites free space (thus making it a safe bet no one's going to be able to ...
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Will completely wiping your hard drive remove all malware? [duplicate]
I recently bought a new computer. Now I want to convert my old PC into a Linux system. However, I want to start completely fresh and not bring over any malware. I am already planning to wipe ...
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Cases where DBAN has won
Are there any real life cases where software such as DBAN (to securely erase disks) has beaten government/law enforcement agencies?
I found this online which lists each time encryption has beaten ...
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Magnet to wipe HDD [duplicate]
This question is for HDD, not SDD.
Would a Neodymium magnet like this one be strong enough to wipe the contents of a hard disk drive?
How long would such an act take to destroy any data so it's not ...
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What is the difference between the different wiping methods used by DBAN?
I was wondering what is the difference between the various wiping methodologies that DBAN offers
DBAN Website
Once you start the program, there are a few methods available for wiping the disk.
1.- ...
user104733
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Data wiping. SSD VS eMMC how are they the same and how are they different?
looking into how to properly erasing data from solid state devices is quite the topic with a different answer from just about every webpage I read. I understand there are issues with wiping data from ...
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How reliable is the method of overwriting deleted files with large files? [duplicate]
In addition to the question posted regarding purging data without formatting and the ability to recover data with forensic tools, how reliable is the method regarding overwriting with large file sets?
...
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Securely remove data from hard drive without killing recovery partition
Information Security vs Business question here:
IT department asks me for a way to securely remove data from a hard drive because they want to sell old hardware.
I suggest DBAN as a secure wipe ...
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Why don't OSes offer secure file erase/wipe? [duplicate]
Inspired from here: Why didn't OSes securely delete files right from the beginning? And why do they still not do this?
The point that seems to be taken there is why it is not the default, but the ...
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Is there a risk that file shredders and free space wipers steal our confidential data?
I was wondering how secure are the file shredding software and free space wipers?
Lets say we are using PC Windows, and software CCleaner (from piriform) or File Shredder (found here) to securely ...
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Deleted files and their traces
Lets say we delete various files , from hard disk A, with shift - delete , windows 8 . Then we copy new files to the same hard disk A. Then those new files we just copied there to hard disk A, we ...
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Why didn't OSes securely delete files right from the beginning? And why do they still not do this?
After decades of hearing that "delete" does not really make the data impossible to recover, I have to ask WHY the OS was not corrected long ago to do what it should have been doing all along? What is ...
user82913
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What full-disk secure erase solutions exist for SSDs (OS X)? [duplicate]
I want to back up the contents of my Macbook before encrypting it, but after I'm done, I would like to sanitize the SSD that I have backed up my files to, since it will be unencrypted (no point ...
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Method for securely removing files from a solid state drive
I've thought of a method for securely erasing single files on a solid state drive. This method will work only if the drive is encrypted, and it will work even if someone cracks the encryption key for ...
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Does the ATA Trim command irrecoverably delete data on an SSD?
I occasionally see people reference the difficulty of deleting data from an Solid State Disk. Because of the nature of SSDs (wear leveling, etc), simply writing to the same sector of the disk doesn't ...
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Wiping a computer of personal information while keeping the operating system intact
I have a unique situation but will try form this as a generally applicable Q&A:
I must leave my Operating System intact, but completely wipe my information from the computer. How can I do this?
...
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How to avoid local caches when I open encrypted files
For personal usage I tend to keep things that I want to hide or protect in rar archives encrypted and protected with a password. Today I launched an antivirus scan, and as result it found malware in a ...
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Securely decommissioning a dedicated server
One of my dedicated hosting CentOS servers hit 12 years. I received an end-of-life notice on it, and I started receiving SMART errors as well. I guess it's time to let it go. But before I do, I'd like ...
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Why does UNIX `shred` command rename files to 000, then 00, then 0 before deleting?
I was using shred to get rid of some files and I noticed that it did the following:
shred: 0000: renamed to 000
shred: 000: renamed to 00
shred: 00: renamed to 0
Does anyone know what's the point in ...
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Apple's Keychain - good security?
This management system runs under a user's password. Should you let this software manage your Disk Utility encrypted folder passwords and the like (e.g. GnuPG!)? My thoughts are, "No." ...
user87589
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How long is the information on Facebook stored? [closed]
I was wondering how long Facebook stores our photos and posts?
I hear two theories, one saying it is around half a year, after which all the data centers are going to erase our data. The other one ...
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Is a file shredder/secure erase necessary when you have full disk encryption turned on?
The password manager that I use has instructions to migrate to a new file format:
Export existing passwords to a temporary text file
Change password manager to new format
Import passwords from ...
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What is the security value of chattr +s?
Most modern Linux file systems support extended attributes. +s is secure deletion which ensures (at least intends) that the data in a file is overwritten with zeros when the file is deleted. Some ...
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What is the risk of data being recovered from SAN storage after logical deletion?
The specific scenario involves Linux servers on VMware hosts with SAN storage. If files containing sensitive data are deleted by Linux, can they be recovered by a low level tool similar to what might ...
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I forgot to shred a file before deleting it (on Windows). How do I shred that part of file system now where the file was located?
My company has a policy that files have to be shredded after they've been read. They provide with a tool shred.exe that I run on the file and it overwrites it with garbage in the file system before ...
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Would the theory of creating tons of duplicates of a small file, 'wipe' the hard drive?
Mentioned here: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5521
I was just curious if this would really work. It makes sense to me. As long as they don't do reverse forensics on the bits on the hard ...
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Overwriting disk with random data vs. encrypted zeros
Most disk encryption guides recommend to overwrite the disk with random data before encryption, this is discussed here.
However the time this takes with the "standard" source of random data can be ...
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“Encrypt and wipe” procedure on Android Lollipop?
I know a lot of people are advocating an "encrypt and wipe" procedure for selling used Android phones. But according to the AOSP website, in Android 5.x Lollipop:
Created fast encryption, which ...
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Can data be forensically retrieved off an encrypted hard drive?
If a hard drive is encrypted, is it still possible to retrieve data off of it? What about if the password to decrypt it is known? If this is the case, given that OSX now encrypts your drive by default,...
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Wipe rewriteable optical media (CD, DVD, ...) content
There are already several posts here discussing the specificities of magnetic hard disks and SSD and how to properly wipe their content:
With magnetic disk a complete overwrite of the disk content is ...
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Secure file deletion vs wiping free space
Say I only wanted to delete specific files and want to feel confident they can't be recovered. Is it better to use a specific program (such as Eraser) for wiping only the files, or is it better to ...
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Why is writing zeros (or random data) over a hard drive used when writing all ones is more beneficial? [duplicate]
As far as I know, in order to securely delete the hard drive's contents, one should fill it with zeroes or, for added security and harder recoverability, random data first and then all zeroes.
In ...
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How do I prevent SSD file recovery?
I use a Kingston V300 SSD (specifically SV300S37A)
According to this answer
The 'best' modern drives support a vendor-specific secure erase functionality. Examples of this are Intels new 320 ...
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Safely remove original file after encryption
My application encrypts a file, and the result is written to a different one. How do I safely remove the original one (C++)?
Update. Wow! The problem is more complicated than I thought of it...
1) ...
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Selling HDD - wiping
I am selling my HDD and I want to erase it. I would like to use DBAN, but it doesn't erase HPA and DCO, my question is, does it matter? What data can be here? And my second question - if I wipe HPA ...
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How can I securely delete items in a database?
I know that to securely delete files on a system I have to apply some kind of secure deletion (overwritting empty clusters, for example).
But when I want to delete some information on a database (...
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Undelete-secure AES software and software for carrying out "full undeletion" free-partition-space zeroing/reformatting on Windows?
It is fairly well known that on Windows, when you delete a file (or folder which may contain any number of files and subfolders possibly containing other files and subfolders and so on), Windows just ...
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How to secure delete inside a virtual machine?
Here is a tricky one: Can you securely delete a file from a VM?
I'm sure the answer is dependent on a million different variables, and I'm sure the answer is something like "not really" but I want ...
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Are there any filesystems that have secure deletion as a feature?
There's many 3rd party tools people have designed to perform secure deletion, but I don't know of any filesystems where secure deletion is built in. In fact, secure deletion has to work around ...
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Is data-remanence a concern in RAM?
I know data-remanence is a concern on hard drives, but is it a concern on RAM? For example, once a program completes, is its data still available on RAM, just as data on a hard drive remains after ...
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On File delete, using java File delete method what could be the security issue?
In my case, the static code analysis tool shows the issue when it founds the code like this:
boolean status = file.delete();
It issues the security vulnerability saying the validation is required.
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