Deleting Vs Moving?

Deleting a file merely marks it for overwriting, so enableing it to be
recovered by recovery software.

Is this true also for moving a file? Thus for secure deletion could
I just move a file to another HDD and delete it from there?

Are any traces f the moved file left on the system disk?

On 11.12.19 5:36, Peter Jason wrote:
Deleting a file merely marks it for overwriting, so enableing it to be
recovered by recovery software.

Is this true also for moving a file? Thus for secure deletion could
I just move a file to another HDD and delete it from there?

Are any traces f the moved file left on the system disk?

Yes.
No.
Yes.

Peter Jason wrote:
Deleting a file merely marks it for overwriting, so enableing it to be
recovered by recovery software.

Is this true also for moving a file? Thus for secure deletion could
I just move a file to another HDD and delete it from there?

Are any traces f the moved file left on the system disk?

Deleting is never hygienic.
The $MFT has the entry still there. Only one
byte is flipped, saying the entry can be harvested
when needed (overwritten). Same goes for data
cluster storage. The data clusters are just sitting
there, and it could be much later before some
file write comes along and uses one or more of those
clusters.

This is why "UnDelete" programs work so well. The
stuff is just sitting there, ready to go.

To ensure a cluster is overwritten with zeros or the
like, you need an application like Heidi Eraser.
To a lesser extent, there is also Sdelete from
Sysinternals, but you'd better test that, because
I think I found there was still stuff that did not
get erased.

Whatever you use, test it. I've been shocked in some
cases, when I test erasure techniques and I'm still
finding stuff that shouldn't be there, later. There
are just too many temporary files floating around
for comfort.

Even the process of searching for stuff, leaves a
trail. I was finding new entries in the Registry,
with my "recent searches" recorded in there :-/
Not ****ing funny. So if your secret password
was 12345678 and you decided to try a search
for 12345678, then flip over to Regedit, and
you'll be finding 12345678 in a registry entry.

Paul

In article ,
says...

Deleting a file merely marks it for overwriting, so enableing it to be
recovered by recovery software.

Is this true also for moving a file? Thus for secure deletion could
I just move a file to another HDD and delete it from there?

Are any traces f the moved file left on the system disk?

Yes, same as deleted because that's all the OS does after it's "moved".
Move is just copy and then delete original.

On 12/10/2019 9:36 PM, Peter Jason wrote:
Deleting a file merely marks it for overwriting, so enableing it to be
recovered by recovery software.


Sort of. More specifically what does is mark the clusters it used as
unused. Since they are unused, they are available to be written to.



Is this true also for moving a file?



"Moving" a file somewhere on the same disk doesn't really move it. It
just marks the clusters it used as being in a different folder.



Thus for secure deletion could
I just move a file to another HDD and delete it from there?


Moving it to another drive necessarily does move it. It's like copying
it to the other drive, then deleting it from the original. So the
original's clusters are still there, marked as unused and available.



Are any traces f the moved file left on the system disk?



--
Ken

On 12/11/19 8:58 AM, Ken Blake wrote:

[snip]

"Moving" a file somewhere on the same disk doesn't really move it. It
just marks the clusters it used as being in a different folder.

Moving the directory entry, while doing nothing to the file itself.

Thus for secure deletion could
I just move a file to another HDD and delete it from there?


Moving it to another drive necessarily does move it. It's like copying
it to the other drive, then deleting it from the original. So the
original's clusters are still there, marked as unused and available.

[snip]

--
14 days until the winter celebration (Wed, Dec 25, 2019 12:00:00 AM for
1 day).

"God is a concept by which we measure our pain." [John Lennon (1940-80)]