File deletion- fact or myth

[Guest]

I reagrds to this link
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=217731

I would like to know how defragmenters work with deleted files. The above link discusses how files are not truly deleted and can be recovered by interested parties.

1.
I have a small partition(30gb) that I use for temp storage of movie isos. Norton defrag shows appears to only show nondeleted files. Will fragmentation slow your system with these truly undeleted files?Or, does the drive reading disregard these supossedly deleted files?


2.
Is your drive actually "full" after temp storing its limit, only freeing up space as needed?i.e- New system(200gb),then store say 50,4gb isos. Will this system be slower than one that didnt do the massive store(due to these truly undeleted files)?


3. Do wipers work? Noton syswork has a wiper that does a fancy "government" wipe and writes over files with a series of binary code.

[Cobra]

I can't answer the first couple of questions, but with regards to the file shredders - they should work. I know Cybershredder erases the beginning and end of the file, so you don't know where to start and stop reading then it writes over the actual data many times with random junk. This should physically obliterate data so it shouldn't be recoverable.

Whether it lives up to this or not is another question, but how can we test?

Cobra

[devinemi83]

Well if your drive is heavily fragmented then yes, it will affect performance. This is noticable with large files like video, ISO, large programs(games) or large archives. Now I am not quite sure about what you are asking but when you hit the "delete" key the file is still on the drive and just its marked as free space. But what happens I have noticed is that when you delete huge files it doesnt help out performance as much as I thought it would. Because if say one half of a movie is on one side of a 2gig file, and the other side of the movie is at the "end" of the 2 gig file. Whether you delete the 2gig file or not, the drive still has to move over across that distance to get the other half of the movie. So yeah it will help a bit, but not as much as a defrag will.


Yes, a full drive is slower than a sleaker drive. This has always been the case for me. When my 40Gig drive is getting full my machine runs VERY slow and chugs the whole way through. As I said defragging will help but if the drive has to run across itself to get one file then race back to get another its gonna slow down somewhat.

Yes wipers work. Most use the "DOD" spec for secure data eraser. It will write over that area of the disc 7+ times with "1111" and "0000" making it nearly impossible to recover data off of. This is be plenty to just have privacy. From what I know of, no police agencies have ever been able to recover files deleted to DOD specs. Now could the CIA or NSA do it? Maybe. We dont know what they are capable of. But unless you pissed someone in those 2 groups off, or a bunch of ex KGB guys, you are golden with a stanard wiping program.

NOTE: The only 100% way to kill all data on a drive is to physically destroy it. I mean like melt it in acid or in a smelter. That way no force in the universe could EVER possibly access that data again. LOL

[lordsmurf]

1.
I have a small partition(30gb) that I use for temp storage of movie isos. Norton defrag shows appears to only show nondeleted files. Will fragmentation slow your system with these truly undeleted files?Or, does the drive reading disregard these supossedly deleted files?

Fragmentation hurts. It may harm the the "deleted" files with a defragment. Nothing is "deleted" ... the file list just removes the entry and lists the space as available ... even on most formats.

2.
Is your drive actually "full" after temp storing its limit, only freeing up space as needed?i.e- New system(200gb),then store say 50,4gb isos. Will this system be slower than one that didnt do the massive store(due to these truly undeleted files)?

Swap files need space. More stuff on a primary disc (full diosc, not just partition) will slow down PC.

3. Do wipers work? Noton syswork has a wiper that does a fancy "government" wipe and writes over files with a series of binary code.

No. Only real way to fully remove files is melt the drive in fire or acid, etc. Even partially burned drives can still have data removed. Must fully melt it into a gooey pile.

[ps2daddy]

If you completely write over a hard drive 3X with country music it will destroy all traces of data (other than the contry music)

Something to do with the country music data

(Just kidding)

[Guest]

[quote="lordsmurf"]

1.
I have a small partition(30gb) that I use for temp storage of movie isos. Norton defrag shows appears to only show nondeleted files. Will fragmentation slow your system with these truly undeleted files?Or, does the drive reading disregard these supossedly deleted files?

Fragmentation hurts. It may harm the the "deleted" files with a defragment. Nothing is "deleted" ... the file list just removes the entry and lists the space as available ... even on most formats.

2.
Is your drive actually "full" after temp storing its limit, only freeing up space as needed?i.e- New system(200gb),then store say 50,4gb isos. Will this system be slower than one that didnt do the massive store(due to these truly undeleted files)?

Swap files need space. More stuff on a primary disc (full diosc, not just partition) will slow down PC.


But my question is more along the lines of"will a drive that has been previously filled to its limit be slower than one that hasnt, even if all of the data was deleted?