Microsofts hidden files

Hidden file
Hey Kev, I hate to break this to you but that is NOT where the deleted files go. The index.dat is constantly adding all that info you mentioned to it.. it doesn't wait for you to delete it as it is there already.

BTW, index.dat can be deleted easily through a dos prompt or by a multitude of programs available for use.

Murray

On the contrary Murray I'm glad your'e breaking it to me please enlighten me further.

( This was info related to me by an acquaintance who appeared to be very knowledgeable, but then again I'm not, so he would sound like he knows what he's doing)

when you delete a file... it's deleted. microsoft does not permit you to delete file like MSN messaged and IE and whatnot... they will always reappear. but as for random files... they are gone. HOWEVER, the data is not removed from the disk. the space it was occlupying is just allocated back to the free-space index. the files can be reconstructed if they are not overwritten. there are programs (norton wipe among others) that *destroy) files, not just erase them. that is, they first overwrite the entire file with an arbitrary repeating hex integer, THEN erase it. so even if a file is resurrected, it contains no information.