digitalfreedom Posted November 30, 2006 Share Posted November 30, 2006 With Windows as we all know when you actually delete something its still there unless you use something like system mechanic to wipe the files totaly.So on Mandriva are there anytraces left of deleted files such as deleted /tmp files or removed files? If so how does one go about removing these traces? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jboy Posted November 30, 2006 Share Posted November 30, 2006 (edited) Yes, the traces are still there. Here's an article about it, along with an easy technique for erasing empty space on a file system: http://www.linuxsecurity.com/content/view/117638/49/ Also, there are probably some utility programs that will wipe empty disk space (if you don't want to use the dd command mentioned in the article); http://www.sourceforge.net would be a good place to search for them. Edited November 30, 2006 by jboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagwah Posted November 30, 2006 Share Posted November 30, 2006 I believe (and I maybe and probably are wrong) but if you overwrite the file with a blank file or a file filled with gibberish, that makes the original files contents unaccessible, or at least much harder to access. That seems to be what quite a few programs that claim to 'securely delete' files do anyway. I would imagine that deleted files under Mandriva would just as readable as under Windows, unless of course Mandriva/Linux does some little tricks, (which wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think it does) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagwah Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 Nice link jboy, interesting stuff, a little to technical for me :unsure: and cetrainly seems to be a little more complicated than simply overwritting, I guess it depends on how determined they are on getting your info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 A while back, The Register offered some free data-wipe tools for use on the swap partition or unallocated disc space. I think this is more effective than trying to just erase single files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitalfreedom Posted December 1, 2006 Author Share Posted December 1, 2006 thanx for all the gr8 replies.....neato.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shengchieh Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 Recently I needed to erase files on my old computer (brought a new computer). For single files, the command, shred, will do the job. [Not 100% secure, but it overwrites 25 (or whatever you specify) times.] For the entire disk, use dban http://dban.sourceforge.net/ Sheng-Chieh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagwah Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 shengchieh Thats quite a list of links you have there, will come in useful I'm sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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