Recovery of History

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

I need to ask; if deleted, can the History folders contents be recovered?

Regards,

Mike
 
Thanks for your reply.

Now I get what you say. What I don't get is, if a history folder was
cleared(using "clear history" in internet explorer) and after that a program
like BCWipe was used. With BCWipe I wiped the special folders (History,
Temporary Internet Files, cookies and swap).

Please note that this was afterwards. So if I clear history first and then
wiped, would that history be recoverable? Also lets say almost a month has
passed by.

The second thing that confuses me is that, the location of the Temporary
Internet Files folder was moved a another disk (a disk seperate of hard
drive, during the use of IE6). If you look up the history folder, you will
see its contents are linked to the Temporary Internet Files folder. So
basically history is just links. So wouldn't it be considerably much more
difficult to recover a link or may be even impossible?

Regards,

Mike
 
A DOD wipe rewrites the area 7 times, at that point the residual
magnetic fields of the original data supposedly cannot be recovered,
even with forensic methods. Are you trying to recover info or are you
worried that someone else will?
 
Thanks for your reply Bob.

I'll be honest with you. I have recently sold my hard drive to a friend.
Even if not myself, the hard drive has been used for surfing questionable
websites. It won't matter who surfed, cause I'm the previos owner of the hard
drive. I got concerned after the person to whom I sold to mentioned
recovering lost data. Now I won't rest until someone can give me a straight
answer to my questions.

As stated in my previous post. I did wipe the special folders (history,
index.dat, cookies). But my understanding is a file has to be deleted with
the wiping method. So at first a simple delete, then wipe would be pointless.
Because the file to be wiped is gone, and the area to be wiped is not known.
So for example, I deleted the history folder and afterwards wiped the history
folder ( an empty folder now that is ), would this be pointless? (i.e. the
deleted items before the wipe of just the folder. No wipe of free space done)

Second, are history links more difficult to recover, since they are very
small and the source folder (Temporary Internet Files folder) missing (i.e.
not recoverable)?

Sorry for the long post, but I would greatly appreciate if you could take
your time to clarify the matter.

Best Wishes,

Mike
 
If you didn't "wipe the free space" and new data hasn't "covered" or
filled the previously used clusters, then things can be recovered and if
perhaps viewed. Generally a missing cluster in a picture file will
render it unviewable, but a text file will be usable except for the
missing segment. I don't know what the "wipe" you did accomplished, if
anything based on the way you describe it. As for the friend, what
methods of "data recovery" is he using? If just an "undelete" program,
perhaps nothing of consequence. If he is into blackmail and has the
tools, then it's anyone's guess.
 
What do think is the best deleted file recovery software specifically
designed to recover History?

Regards,

Mike
 
No idea, I haven't had the occasion to be concerned about it. I would
doubt that there is a "commercial software" designed for the sole
purpose of "recovering history". You may want to talk to the "data
recovery experts", as this is way outside the realm of WindowsXP.general.
 
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