Member Avatar for Tzwingman

Hello! In today’s world of identity theft, hacking, phishing, etc. I want to be sure I’m doing everything I can to get any personal information on my PC…just that…personal and protected. I heard a news report this afternoon about “scrubbing your hard drive to remove temporary files that might hold information like credit card numbers, checking account information, online banking files, etc. I’m running Windows XP Home Ed. I believe I have all the necessary options set in terms of firewall, anti virus software, spyware, etc.

What can you tell me about “scrubbing and is that something I can do with XP or do I need to purchase a software program?

Thanks in advance!!!

Tom

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Member Avatar for nanosani

Scrubbing a disk means writing over each bit on the drive with new and usually random information. If you delete your files from the recycle bin even then it'll be possible to access that information ... scrubbing is a means to erase that information.

There are tools that can scrub the disk ... US department of Defence recommends scrubbing a disk 7 times.

Scrubbing is usually done when a hard drive is sold or given to someone.

Member Avatar for Tzwingman

Scrubbing a disk means writing over each bit on the drive with new and usually random information. If you delete your files from the recycle bin even then it'll be possible to access that information ... scrubbing is a means to erase that information.

There are tools that can scrub the disk ... US department of Defence recommends scrubbing a disk 7 times.

Scrubbing is usually done when a hard drive is sold or given to someone.

So are you saying that the "average pc user" does not have to scrub their hard drive on a regular basis to ensure privacy information is not saved of the hard drive? Thanks!

Member Avatar for nanosani

Nah ... I never scrubbed my hard drive until I sold it out ... but if you are more concerned about your privacy then you can certainly do it on a regular basis ...

Member Avatar for Catweazle

Tzwingman, all that's being talked about there is cleaning up temporary files. If you use the 'Disk cleanup' feature on the programs menu (under Accessories) and also regularly use the 'delete Files' feature of Internet Options then you'll regularly remove all sensitive information that may have found its way into temporary files. Everybody should do that regularly.

Also, if you disable any 'remember passwords' features and manually enter passwords every time you need to use them you will never have that information stored on your PC. Same goes for personal data entered into forms. Enter it manually instead of having the PC remember it and fill the forms out for you, and you won't have that problem.

Keep your security settings high, don't enter sensitive data into forms on insecure websites, and have your PC adequately firewalled and you should have no problems at all.

nanosani is correct in saying that 'scrubbing' a drive usually refers to the practice of completely overwriting every tiny part of a hard drive wso that the information previously on it cannot be retrieved again. The news report you heard has misused the term.

Member Avatar for Tzwingman

Tzwingman, all that's being talked about there is cleaning up temporary files. If you use the 'Disk cleanup' feature on the programs menu (under Accessories) and also regularly use the 'delete Files' feature of Internet Options then you'll regularly remove all sensitive information that may have found its way into temporary files. Everybody should do that regularly.

Also, if you disable any 'remember passwords' features and manually enter passwords every time you need to use them you will never have that information stored on your PC. Same goes for personal data entered into forms. Enter it manually instead of having the PC remember it and fill the forms out for you, and you won't have that problem.

Keep your security settings high, don't enter sensitive data into forms on insecure websites, and have your PC adequately firewalled and you should have no problems at all.

nanosani is correct in saying that 'scrubbing' a drive usually refers to the practice of completely overwriting every tiny part of a hard drive wso that the information previously on it cannot be retrieved again. The news report you heard has misused the term.

Thank you to all that helped me with this posting...I greatly appreciate it!!!

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