How to remove unwanted bloat from windows.

This is quite amazing.

[mack]

Today I wanted to view an image that I delited from my windows XP machine. The main problem was I delited the file at least 6 months ago. Guess what? I managed to recover the image perfectly.

The software I used also recovered over 8000 images. Is there any way to free up this wasted disk space. Is this perhaps the reason that any windows version gets slower and slower and slower as time goes by?

I was amazed that it worked but in a way surprised that windows allows this amount of disk clutter.

[gsx]

That disk space was free. If it is deleted and not in the recycle bin, the space is marked as free - this is done by changing the first character of the filename to a different character (it used to be the question mark) on the disk. Eventually something will overwrite it, but it can take years on a large hard disk.

The system never actually deletes a file, this is just too time consuming. Imagine it like a book - each page is a file. The quickest way to delete - is it to tippex the whole page out, or to put a star at the top of the page (just so you know it is no longer required)?

[mack]

I though it was a case of waiting for something to over write it so im glad you confirmed that.

When I delited the file the system was almost new. since then I have installed literaly loads of aps and programs. Im realy amazed that after this amout of time I was still able to recover it.

[HughMungus]

[annoyances.org...]

[bcolflesh]

Data on current drive media cannot be completely erased - just ask the guys at the DOJ or any recovery place - the safest bet is always complete physical destruction of the drive.

On the subject lines bloat issue, the main company making "slim" installation versions of Windows is:

www.litepc.com/

Regards,
Brent

[Allen]

Not true. You can nuke a disc with a large magnetic field, then just reformat it to start using it again.

Also, the data does degrade to an unreadable point 'eventually', but I believe this is a stupidly high number.

Anyway, that's why we have encryption.

Allen

[bcolflesh]

"You can nuke a disc with a large magnetic field" - you can - doesn't stop the data from being recovered - seen it done many times with data subjected to salvage yard magnets - most public recovery places won't have the tools for this though.

"Anyway, that's why we have encryption" - there is no current form of encryption I haven't seen reversed in less than 96 hours - again, most public recovery places won't have the tools for this though.

Regards,
Brent

[bill]

bcolflesh March 20, 2003

there is no current form of encryption I haven't seen reversed in less than 96 hours

William Crowell, Deputy Director, National Security Agency, March 20, 1997

If all the personal computers in the world - 260 million - were put to work on a single PGP-encrypted message, it would still take an estimated 12 million times the age of the universe, on average, to break a single message.

Has that much changed over the past 6 years?

[bcolflesh]

I doubt if it's much of a secret now, but the US gov't allowed the export of strong PGP once they had completed (and were furnished with) decryption algorithms in 1999.

www.securiteam.com/securitynews/US_Government_allows_export_of_PGP_encryption.html

The last "encryption" method that even caused minor discussion was some steganograpy incidents in connection with the 911 attacks. Personally, I am watching the development of Hydan with interest:

www.crazyboy.com/hydan/

Regards,
Brent

[bill]

the US gov't allowed the export of strong PGP once they had completed (and were furnished with) decryption algorithms in 1999.

I've never seen proof that PGP has been cracked. It was available outside the US for several years before the US allowed export. I think the problem was more political/economic as US companies couldn't sell products with encryption due to outdated laws (that included Netscape & Microsoft).