Deleting The Deleted

[Bart Sr.]

While running Spybot Search and Destroy I noticed the names and numbers of programs and/or files that have been deleted but are probably still on the hard drive somewhere.<br /><br />My question/assistance needed is>>>How do I access a means of COMPLETELY removing or deleting them?????<br /><br />Thanks in advance for all your assistance!!!

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: Deleting The Deleted

you should be able to access them through the<br />control panel, add/remove programs. choose remove<br />and a list of programs should pop up for you to<br />examine.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Re: Deleting The Deleted

I had the same problem and did as MY said, only to find that they were not in the list of programs that could be deleted. Could not find them anywhere and they were devestating my PC. I even ran in safe mode and tried all that hooey.<br /><br /> When I had the spybot downloaded on my old PC, I had all kinds of spyware coming in. It actually got a lot worse after I loaded that program.(it was the free version) Could it be that the spybot program itself could be importing all kinds things into your PC? That was the feeling I got. I have since run the norton 2004 and it seems to keep all that suff outta here.

 

[mellowyellow]

Re: Deleting The Deleted

start, settings, taskbar/start menu.<br />try to remove from there. may not be<br />in the programs file at all if they<br />are in start menu.

 

[Bart Sr.]

Re: Deleting The Deleted

Thanks for the replies guys but that is all basic stuff.<br /><br />I was hoping someone could tell me how to get them completely off the harddrive.

 

[Xcusme]

Re: Deleting The Deleted

Bart, Boy have you opened up a can of worms! If you need to really toast files from your HD, Windows delete file function won't get it. Programs like PGP's file deletion utility works well by marking the file space as deleted and then overwrites the file area to Mil specs.<br />As for cleaning the HD of previous program files, it's best to lay the groundwork before you install the program in the first place. Utilities that record all installation procedures and files written for a particular program and then save this 'log' file to your HD. To remove, you run the utility and call up the log file of the original install. It then backtracks the install removing all of the components in reverse order.<br /><br />Registry cleaners that compare program installed paths and verify that the programs are still installed can be used to find those pesky program links and fragments in the registry. Utilities that examine the dll files and link them to existing programs can be run too. Dll files that are left over from old program installs can then be deleted. <br /><br />Of course after all of this work, you should do a defrag and free space overwrite of the HD. It goes without saying that Fdisking the HD and doing a reformat goes without saying as a last resort solution too. This is good enough to keep the casual snooper from getting data from your HD. More drastic measures would need to be taken to really protect the deleted data from a high tech forensics lab. I personally prefer PGP's solutions version 6.58CKT for email and file encryption. Another thread point to the fact that Microsoft snoops on you too. Windows OS's are notorious for keeping data on past file downloads and records email content as well, even after you think it's gone, but that's still another can of worms. Hope this helps.

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Deleting The Deleted

Try 'wipe info'. Part of Norton Systemworks. Works for me. Spybot also works great but you need the constant upgrades. Aldo

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Deleting The Deleted

P.S. use 'wipe info' for free space. Aldo

 

[Homerr]

Re: Deleting The Deleted

Get a program called "ENCASE"<br /><br />It's cop software designed to sniff out "deleted" files. Once found, you can then permanently delete them.<br /><br />I know what you're thinking... yea right... <br />I did the same thing until I found stuff I deleted months ago!<br />Windows keeps a lot more than you think.<br /><br />There may be other similar programs available now, but I've always used Encase.<br /><br />And Xcuse is correct... If you have no other choice, you can always do the format C:/<br /> <br /><br />H.