[lucykeystone]

Hi People, I need some help.

When I copy and paste files from my laptop to my external hard drive, will any details of the files I have deleted from my computer in the past, or any details of my internet browsing history be transferred at same time?

The files I want to copy to the external hard drive are things like picture/music/movie/word files.

But I'm a bit scared (perhaps paranoid) that the things I have deleted (which I know are still lurking on my computer without me seeing them), or traces of the various sites I have visited, will be moved across in secret without my knowledge and be on the external hard drive. Is this at all possible?

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssssssee help

[Glaswegian]

Hi and welcome.

The answer is no - browsing history is not stored in those file types. It is spread in other areas of your hard drive. Deleted files will not be transferred either, however, deleted files, if put in the Recycle Bin, are not really deleted. A google search would enable you to find some good file erasers.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000510.htm

[eppoeh]

wordfiles made in microsoft office could contain more information then you can see.. links of images pasted in them could still be lurking around... as well as deleted text/changes... could be seen as browsing history...

makes me wonder... what sites do you visit being that paranoid?:s

[spot]

Let's say there's an internet browser history file on your disk and it says you went to http://www.computer-juice.com/forums on February 3rd 2009. Let's say you delete it.

The deletion removes a part of the file table, it means that when you list files that internet browser history file won't show up any longer. The complete content of the file is still on the hard drive. If someone opened the hard drive as one big file with no layout and just scanned it for "computer-juice" they'd get a hit on the piece of disk the history file occupied and they'd be able to read the surrounding information like February 3rd 2009.

As you add files to the disk, that piece of disk might get re-used and then the hit wouldn't happen. It's not something you can rely on, either it gets overwritten by accident or it doesn't.

In some programs if you say Save File then it will grab a piece of disk the right size, save what it wants to save and you have a new file. If the program doesn't wipe down the piece of disk in the process then your previous content from the internet browser history file might still be in there except now it's become a part of a new file. If it's a Word file (I'm not saying Microsoft Word doesn't wipe cleanly but maybe) then the internet browser history file content wouldn't print but it might have been captured in a slack area of the file which has nothing assigned to it by Word.

If you copy that file to the external disk then you'd copy the captured internet browser history file content as well.

That's the only way something might get out of your computer after a file delete. The answer is yes, it could happen. It would be unlucky and rare but it's possible. It's far more likely with, say, an incomplete Torrent download but I doubt whether you do use that sort of program.

What do you need to do about it? Are you trying to put a genie back into a bottle or are you trying to find a safe way of using a computer before things go haywire?