hardrive

[olds79]

hi guys can you help me out ive got a xp home pc and has been abused with porn from my kids is there a way i can wipe out everything on here so it will never show up again or should i just get a new hardrive . Im pretty aliterit on these pc;s so any help would be app. thanks in advance

[pangea33]

Oh man that's a tough one. I am pretty sure that porn burns "fingerprints" to disk that can never be removed.

Wait, that won't be for a few years. Find the manufacturer of the hard drive, go to their website, and download the low level formatting tools. This will make the drive as clean as the day it was made. Those images will still remain burned into someone's mind though.

Welcome to PCGuide!

[Whyzman]

Welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

Did they store images in files that you are aware of, or just references in the Temporary Internet Files and browsing History?

You can dump the Temporary Internet Files which store the images to recreate the webpages etc., by going to the Control Panel and double-clicking on Internet Options. On the General tab which should open up immediately you will see a couple boxes: one with Temporary Internet Files...where you can dump the cookies and also the files by clicking on the buttons. Be sure to tick the box deleting all off-line content also. You can then check to see if they are gong by clicking on Settings in the same box and then View Files.

The box underneath the TIF files clears the browser history.

If you desire to reinstall because they might have stored images in files and you don't know where they are...let us know and we can further instruct on zero-ing out the drive and reinstalling.

Sounds like you need to password protect access by setting yourself up as adminstrator to limit their unchaperoned browsing activities...

[Sylvander]

Eraser = http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/
This works within the Windows environment to IRRECOVERABLY erase files, folders and "free" space on the HDD's.
e.g If you send files to the Recycle Bin and then delete them from there [or by-pass the bin], that space is then marked as available for use [is "free" space]. This and all such space is automatically erased irrecoverably if you choose to erase the free space on the drive.
The alternative to "delete" using the Windows shell [recoverable] is that you "Erase" using Eraser [irrecoverable].
You choose how many patterns of zero's and one's to write so as to make the previous contents irrecoverable.