On May 31, 1:16 pm, "Ken Blake, MVP"
<kbl...@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote:
> On Sat, 31 May 2008 07:30:00 -0700, technofobe
>
> <technof...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > Sorry to be thick but I was warned about disposing of my old computer even if
> > I deleted the information as personal information could still be extracted
> > from it, not easily but possibly, which with problems like identity theft
> > could be an issue.
>
> "Deleting" a file doesn't actually delete it it just marks the space
> as available to be used. There are third-party programs that can
> sometimes recover deleted files. The problem is that the space used by
> the file is likely to become overwritten very quickly, and this makes
> the file unrecoverable.
>
> So your chances of successfully recovering this file are decent if you
> try recovering it immediately after deleting it, and rapidly go
> downhill from there.
>
> Some people worry about this when disposing of old computers others
> don't. Those who worry about it will often run special software to
> overwrite everything on the drive with zeros before disposing of it
> sometimes they even do the rewrites multiple times.
>
> My view is that any such risk is extremely small, and is way
> overstated. First, the only deleted files that could readily be
> retrieved are those which had been deleted recently. Second, very few
> people would have the inclination to, or take the time to, undelete
> every deleted file that could be found, then search through them
> looking for some confidential data of value. Considering how many
> hours of effort it would take to do this, and how seldom it would
> yield any result, the return on investment would be tiny.
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
The risk is small, but it's hard to put a price on peace of mind. As
an experiment, I used a simple recovery tool on a discarded machine
and I was amazed at how easy it was to recover so much data and a lot
of it was personal information including tax returns, socials, bank
statements, etc.
So, the risk is small, but only technofobe can judge the value of what
might be left on the drive if it isn't overwritten several times. The
simplest little recovery tool can often recover partial data from
files that were overwritten three times. I'd be real hesitant to tell
someone it isn't worth it, even though the odds be a million to one
that it should fall into the wrong hands.
And, I say this with the utmost regard for Ken and all the great
advice he gives as well as the terrific contributions of the the other
MVPs. Thanks.
-solon fox
