where does it go ??

hi to all again i hope you all or as we say down south ya'll are ok . last week i went to the local flea mkt and they had some cheeep pc's there and i bought one for $40, everything complete system pc mon printer speakers ect. took it home loaded my internet access and got on line and it worked fine. really slow a pent 133. so i decided i would use it for parts and add the hdd to mine. i did after i formatted it i used on-track utillities , the file undeleter to see what was left on it after the wipe. well needless to say there were several porn files jpg and mpeg. i tried to delete it but it came back up with the file undeleter, how do i get this trash off of here. i also found some files on my old pc as well. how can i remove these files completly where the file undeleter wont find them again. i read that even if you format all it does is just move the files around and does not really remove them. i want a clean hard drive with no trash on it so i don't have to worry about my kids seeing it . i have installed IPROTECTYOU. and it works well, so i don't have to worry about them getting it on the net. thanks

 

Depending on the make of the drive, the manufacturer may have a utility on their web site, which will wipe the drive.

For instance Western Digital has a utility (Data Lifeguard) which allows you to write all zeros to the drive.

Go here:

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#dlgtools

 

You need a program like 'wipe disk'. It writes over every sector to overwrite anything that might still be there. Norton utilities has a disk wipe also.

 

thanks for your reply, but what i would like to do is just to find where the file is exactly then really erase/delete it. like i said, when i use on-track file undeleter these files come up listed as C:\progra~1kazaa\myshar~1\ .what i tried to do was delete this file using one of the erasers. but when i try to fine this file i can't find it to erase it . but the undeleter can find it every time. i really don't want to have to erase the entire disk and loose all the programs that i have down loaded. i have found some utilities that wipe the disk clean. can anyone advise which is the best to use to really clean it. thanks again.

 

The easiest way would be to start up that little thing called MSDOM window and mandually delete the directory. You'll first need to the change to that directory, and then either delete the directory (RD), or go in the directory and delete all of the files (Del *.* ). Make sure you first move all your files that you want to keep out of there.

 

Norton System Utilities has a program to do this. Iolo's System Mechanic has a program to do this. There are several programs out there. Try Download.com and search for "safe delete" or something like that. Like adnormal mentioned, you might try the manufacturer's site. Sometimes these utilities write zeros to the whole drive, but I've only used Data Lifeguard, others my have selective deleting.

System Mechanic is the one I use. It has a lot of nice features for cleaning up a computer.

 

It's easier to just wipe disk. When you delete a file you just mark the directory entry as available for use. When you write a ne version of something to disk all it does is point the directory to the new version. The old version is not erased until something else needs that spot on the disk. And there is a backup copy of the directory on the disk as well.

 

Hi execelon1,

Did you try disabeling IPROTECTYOU. It might be stopping you from seeing the files.

And "C:\progra~1kazaa\myshar~1\ " I believe is where the
file-sharing program "KaZaA" keeps files that can be shared on it's system.

Try uninstalling it, look for the files you want get rid of. If not there, defrag your hard drive and reinstall KaZaA. This should delete them from your hard drive and also make your hard drive happy.

Good Luck

 

thanks for all the info. tried to get the wipedisk, can't find any where to download i found one site tried it but it wouldn't open. here's some of the others i found and tried HISTORY KILL, SHREDDER, CLEAN DISK , FILE ASSURITY, ERASER, WASHER, . even spent the time with clean disk to do the GUTMANN method. i used on track file un deleter and lo and behold it was still there NONE OF THESE REMOVED THE PORN FILE . about now i am getting a little $%* , well you know . read on one site, forgot where , probably here, to defrag it several times and that would remove the file. B I N G O ! ! ! i can't find it any more with ontrack file undeleter but is it really gone ? if not where do i go to look for it and how do i get there. and why doesn't it really delete stuff instead of just moving it some where else. how do i make sure if i want to delete something that it really is deleted . thanks.

 

Defrag resets the file table and structure. That's why it worked. But you should have been able to remove the file with another Safe Deleter, unless your Windows (or "undeleter") was storing copies of deleted files to be rewritten.