Erasing files in Ubuntu: other devices still see the files

[Nikhil Nadig A]

On Sun, 2008-02-10 at 12:33 +0000, Toby Dickenson wrote:
> Dotan Cohen wrote:
> 
> > What gives? Why are these erased files still visible to other 
> > computers? And why can other Ubuntu machines not see the files? 
> 
> As I think youve already worked out this is not "supposed" to happen.
> something has gone wrong. The question is, what? possibly...
> 
> a. You didnt do the sync you thought you did, or there is some other problem
> on your kubuntu machine that caused the problem. maybe bad ram? I can
> assure you that normally kde does not do what you describe.
> 
> b. Some problem on your memory stick which means it is corrupting data. In
> this case, the directory index. This would be unusual, but not impossible.
> 
> c. The software in your DVD player has a bug which means it shows deleted
> files. Can you try looking at your memory disk using some other computer?
> 
> > How
> > can I be sure that sensitive documents that I've erased are in fact
> > gone?
> 
> "Delete" is not sufficient to ensure that sensitive documents do not get
> exposed. This is actually a difficult problem on any operating system.
> Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_remanence for more information.
> 
> I hope this helps,
> 
> 
> 

Hi Dotan,

Try sudo shred -v -n 1 /dev/sdb1 (assuming your memory stick to be
detected as sdb)
Then format it to vfat - sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb1

Now see if your old data still remains. . .

Hope this helps.

With Regards,
Nikhil Nadig.