Prepare a file for deletion using notepad.

A great way to delete files with account numbers and other personal data. Drop it on a opened notepad. The code from the file will appear in notepad. Select all and delete and save. The file will end up saved as a blank file. You can delete the file now or later. Do this if you are sure you will not want to recover it. A person that tries, to recover a file with account numbers may not be able to. That is if you gave the hard drive away. The new owner may run a recovery app and see the file. If they did retrieve the file hopefully it will be the saved blank one. If the same file was saved before, hopefully it will not appear
in the recovery list of files.

You can drop any file on a opened notepad. All the code will appear in notepad. I dropped large security video files and notepad opened it. Video files many hours or a day long opened up. You will get not responding for many minutes. Eventually the code will appear in notepad. Can put paste in code from a different file. That will change the file without the account numbers or personal data. Save it and leave it on the desktop and delete it later.

Did this with hundreds of files recorded by a webcam security recording app. The app strted recording after I turned recording off. Ended up with a day of video large files. Notepad was able to display the code of the file. Saved the file after deleting all the code from it. Typed in 123456789 and saved it. Try it when you want to securely detete a PDF file. A PDF of your bank checking and credit card statements. Drop the PDF on a opened notepad. Wait if notepad says not responding. It will look like notepad crashed on large files.

Discovered this after learning about drag and drop. Experimented by dragging a file on notepad. Started deleting the data in notepad and saved it. It appears to be the best way to delete secured files. The file will be blank if retrieved with file recovery. If the same file was worked on before. The file may appear in a recovery app with the blank file.

Try experimenting dragging a file on notepad. You can see the code of a app in notepad. That is why notepad is used by some programmers.

USAAlone

 

I presume the data would still be recoverable with data recovery software. Surely it would be better to use an app which secruely deletes files. Several of the system utilities I have installed as well as Panda antivirus let me securely delete files from the right click context menu.

 

All the files I deleted with notepad did not appear in the recovery app I used. You can use a file shrredder app after you delete the data in the file. Used a file dshredder app to delete 100 blank video files data deleted using notepad . I also changed the file type to one that does not exist.

USAAlone

 

I think it would be much more secure (and of course, less time consuming) to skip using notepad. If you use notepad, then some data from the files will remain as the files are being replaced with smaller ones.

 

Yes, even if the filesize has changed from 100MB to 0 bytes, the data is still on the harddisk and can be found.

Its better to use dedicated tools to shred the whole file. In case of the "notepad-technique" the free space must be shredded afterwards.

Let's say i have a file with a lot of passwords. Filesize=2,9MB.
After opening it in Winhex:

Now, after opening and "deleting" it with notepad, the filesize is now 0 bytes and after opening the same cluster the data is still there:

The data is not associated with the file anymore, and programs see a deleted file with a filesize of 0 bytes but the secret data can be revealed.

Shredding free space is a time-intensive task, it might be better to shred files with dedicated tools. Nevertheless shredding free space can be done from "time to time".
Using FDE can also be a choice. If all data is already encrypted, its not really a problem if the user doesn't delete files in a secure way but it can still be done, if needed.

 

I shredded the files after deleting the code that made up the files. Typed in a bunch of numbers in the file and saved the file again. Changed the file extensions. Used a file shredder to shred the files. A file recovery app could not find the empty files with no data left in it.

USAAlone

 

you assume totally wrong. windows writes the new file not to the place of the old file - the old file place is marked as free now. recovery programs can also find MFT backups and recover already deleted data from there.

if you want to delete unrecoverable then use a decent tool which writes zeros to the current file place.

 

I did after removing the data from the files. Used a file shredder to shred the files. Was unable to recover the blank files I shredded after using notepad to delete the data. None of these files were found by a file recovery app.
The files have no data in them if you delete the code in notepad.

 

That probably happened because recovery app searched only through MFT to locate old data. If it has scanned empty disk space also it could find remnants from original file.

 

i'm out of this BS, waste of time to explain MFT and recovery methods.

 

But, the original data will still be on the hard drive. Maybe data recovery software could not find it, but it will be there. If you use file shredding software without using Notepad first, then you can be sure that the data is overwritten.

 

You should just shredd files. No need to go through all those hoops of opening in notepad and replacing characters or changing filetypes.

Others explained it pretty well, just stick to any decent shredder (I use privazer, but most others are okay too).

 

Close this thread. Don't have to get upset about it.

Sorry If I pushed members buttons.

Most people wouldn't be using the advanced recovery options. Especially a buyer of your old computer. That is if you sell your computer with the hard drive.

I never posted this to get help.
Thought it might help people deleting files with data intact.

No need to get pushed to the point of getting upset.

That is why I never post here or on any other message boards. So many people on message boards, that have to post a message showing they are upset.

There was no reason for you to have to post again. You do not have to reply again, to show you are upset.

Thanks for your suggestions.