shift delete

[devonwoody]

I caught the tail end of Click (BBC computer program) and I heard something like use shift/delete if you want to really delete stuff off your computer (PC).

Is this correct?

 

[cambournepete]

Yes, in Windows.
Works in Outlook too and is best for suspicious emails

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Seems to work, didn't put the file into my recycle bin.

Pete

 

[knappers]

All it does is delete items immediately, rather than sending them to recycle bin / deleted items.
I almost never use delete on its own.

Si.

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks, but I suppose it is still in the PC somewhere and could be recovered, not that I have anything to hide?

 

[Paul Hannaby]

Yes, there are file recovery utilities that will recover deleted files. Deleting a file doesn't immediately remove the content of the file, just the reference to it.

 

[cambournepete]

Thanks, but I suppose it is still in the PC somewhere and could be recovered, not that I have anything to hide?

Yes, until it gets overwritten, or you wipe the disk.

 

[wobblycogs]

Whether you can "undelete" something is dependent on a number of factors. It probably worth assuming that once you've shift+deleted something it's gone for good.

Modern Windows machines use an NTFS filesystem which, because of the way it works, makes undelete less than reliable. There is software that will try to piece a file back together but in my experience it only works well for small files. Older Windows systems generally used a FAT filesystem which implements delete by just replacing the first character of the file name so undelete is generally easy and reliable.

The most important rule if you've deleted something by accident though is to stop writing things to that drive. The more you write to the drive the greater the chance you'll overwrite some or all of the file you are trying to recover.

 

[LancsRick]

Whether you can "undelete" something is dependent on a number of factors. It probably worth assuming that once you've shift+deleted something it's gone for good.

Depends on your point of view. Yes you might not be able to get it back if you realise you've made a mistake, but from a security point of view, it's not a secure way of getting rid of files at all.

 

[DonJohnson]

The point of shift/delete is just that no copy is kept in the recycle bin - so if you're certain you will never need it . . . . .

 

[wobblycogs]

Anyone concerned about security should be running an encrypted file system e.g. EFS and deleting with a secure delete application (one that overwrites the sectors used by the file). Alternatively you could use something like TrueCrypt to create a virtual and perhaps even hidden drive.

I don't think there are many MI5 employees around here though ;-)

 

[Dibs-h]

I don't think there are many MI5 employees around here though ;-)

I wouldn't have thought they'd be interested in us - hardly a hotbed of nutters. Festool, handtool & hand plane addictions aside. :wink:

Dibs