1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from works 2 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,439 Speaker 1: your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm also an executive producer at 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,960 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works, and I love all things tech and 5 00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: recently I had a request from a listener. The listener 6 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:29,320 Speaker 1: asked me about doing an episode about data retrieval. Now, specifically, 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:32,800 Speaker 1: this listener was curious about how you go about retrieving 8 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: data that was marked for deletion, and this curiosity was 9 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:41,240 Speaker 1: sparked by news stories of various agencies following investigations and 10 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,600 Speaker 1: trying to look for evidence of deleted materials. So the 11 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:46,400 Speaker 1: listener asked if I might be able to go into 12 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:51,040 Speaker 1: that without it becoming a political discussion. Right, Uh, And 13 00:00:51,159 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: I completely respect that. I definitely have a very particular 14 00:00:57,160 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: political philosophy, but I also acknowledge that these sort of 15 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 1: investigations can happen to any political side of the spectrum. Right, 16 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:10,399 Speaker 1: It's not a specific problem that involves one side or 17 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:14,320 Speaker 1: the other. Everyone, at some point or another has been 18 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:16,440 Speaker 1: involved in this kind of stuff. Everyone by that, I 19 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: mean all the major political parties, and that there's always 20 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 1: some sort of question about an investigation. And then well, 21 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:27,080 Speaker 1: did they have possession of information and then they willingly 22 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: got rid of that information or they worked to delete it, 23 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:33,160 Speaker 1: and if so, how do you go about retrieving that? 24 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: So this goes well beyond politics. By the way, politics 25 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: is an obvious example of how this happens. But you 26 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,920 Speaker 1: also hear about these investigations into big corporations that involve 27 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: trying to retrieve data from the void. I mean, this 28 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: goes back ancient times, really, but if in modern era 29 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:54,200 Speaker 1: it goes back to before you're talking about hard drives 30 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: and things like shredded documents and stuff. I remember in 31 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:01,160 Speaker 1: the late nineties early two thousand's when there were a 32 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 1: lot of stories about this, like if you really want 33 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:05,760 Speaker 1: a good one, you can read up on en Ron. 34 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:09,520 Speaker 1: But in that era, when you have an investigation and 35 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: they're looking for evidence, what steps do you have to take? 36 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:15,800 Speaker 1: Or if you're looking at the other way, if you 37 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:19,080 Speaker 1: have a device that's got data on it and you 38 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:21,480 Speaker 1: want to get rid of that device for whatever reason, 39 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:25,600 Speaker 1: how can you be sure, absolutely certain that your information 40 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,440 Speaker 1: is no longer on that device. That's what we're gonna 41 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: talk about today. So what happens when you mark a 42 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,959 Speaker 1: file for deletion? How does that file actually go through 43 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,760 Speaker 1: the deletion process, and to what extent can that file 44 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: then be recovered. Long time listeners of tech stuff may 45 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:47,080 Speaker 1: remember that I've done an episode similar to this particular 46 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:49,799 Speaker 1: one in the past, But things have changed a bit 47 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:52,640 Speaker 1: since that last episode. In fact, the big one would 48 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,920 Speaker 1: be that cloud computing and cloud storage has become a 49 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 1: major industry and it's really changed the conversation as well, 50 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:03,280 Speaker 1: because now we have other stuff to worry about, not 51 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,360 Speaker 1: just the the devices that are in your possession, but 52 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:10,680 Speaker 1: the places where data could exist outside of your control. 53 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: So how does that change things? The answer to that 54 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,520 Speaker 1: is a lot. Well, first, let's talk about what happens 55 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: when you actually delete a file on a device you own. 56 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 1: So you've decided to free up some space on a 57 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 1: hard drive on a computer, and I'm talking about a 58 00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:29,239 Speaker 1: physical hard drive here. You're going to delete a folder 59 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: that contains old term papers because you're never going to 60 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 1: need those again, let's be honest, there's no reason to 61 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,640 Speaker 1: keep them. And what is happening behind the scenes when 62 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,560 Speaker 1: you mark those documents for deletion, Well, the particulars depend 63 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 1: upon the device you're using. So, for example, if you're 64 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:49,240 Speaker 1: on a Windows PC, you're following the rules dictated by 65 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 1: the nt f S file system. Now in t f 66 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,680 Speaker 1: S stands for New Technology File System, I guess that 67 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:00,080 Speaker 1: means I just said new Technology file system files is 68 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:03,600 Speaker 1: them kind of like pen number or a t M machine. 69 00:04:03,680 --> 00:04:06,839 Speaker 1: So whoop see daisy on that one, guys. Anyway, when 70 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: you delete a file, the file pops on over to 71 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,080 Speaker 1: the recycle bin or the trash bin, depending upon what 72 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: operating system you're using. But the principle remains the same. 73 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:18,080 Speaker 1: And when I say pops on over, the file doesn't 74 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:23,360 Speaker 1: actually change locations on the hard drive. It's designation changes. 75 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,280 Speaker 1: So instead of the file being listed as being inside 76 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:31,120 Speaker 1: the docks folder, it's being listed in the recycle bin. 77 00:04:31,279 --> 00:04:35,919 Speaker 1: So the physical location of data on your computer is 78 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:42,240 Speaker 1: not tied directly to its file location. Within a file directory, 79 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:45,560 Speaker 1: those two things are separate. The file directory gives us 80 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:48,280 Speaker 1: a very convenient way for human beings to look at 81 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:51,440 Speaker 1: all the information that's stored on a device, or at 82 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:54,280 Speaker 1: least all the information that is viewable. Sometimes you have 83 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,719 Speaker 1: hidden files that won't show up in a file directory. 84 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 1: But let's just for argument's sake, say all the files. 85 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:04,200 Speaker 1: It's an easy way to organize that so that we 86 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,520 Speaker 1: as human beings can find what we're looking for. If 87 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:10,800 Speaker 1: it were just a giant storage bend that had data 88 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 1: kind of haphazardly connected inside of it, it would be 89 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:18,000 Speaker 1: very difficult to find anything specific you wanted. So the 90 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: file system is mainly meant as something to let us 91 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:27,039 Speaker 1: humans access our information more easily. It's not so much 92 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: for the computer. It's for us on the physical side. 93 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: That data could be located next to data that's in 94 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,160 Speaker 1: a totally different file folder, in a totally different section, 95 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 1: even in a different drive on your computer. So that's 96 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:43,880 Speaker 1: something to keep in mind. The physical location of your 97 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:49,159 Speaker 1: data and the files location are not necessarily connected. That's 98 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,680 Speaker 1: important to remember. But the file designation has changed, so 99 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: the associated programs with that file will no longer connect 100 00:05:56,960 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: to it. By that, I mean, let's say it's a 101 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:02,000 Speaker 1: word document. I had mentioned term papers earlier, so you've 102 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:04,600 Speaker 1: got a term paper. It's a word document. Let's say 103 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: you used a Microsoft word and you save the document there, 104 00:06:08,279 --> 00:06:10,720 Speaker 1: and when you delete it, it means that the file 105 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:14,159 Speaker 1: designation changes so that that file is now appearing in 106 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,400 Speaker 1: the recycled bin as opposed to the documents folder and 107 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:19,240 Speaker 1: you pull up Word and you want to pull up 108 00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 1: that particular document, you can't because it's trying to connect 109 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,520 Speaker 1: to a file that was last in the documents folder. 110 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:30,000 Speaker 1: That's not where it is anymore. So Word is not 111 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: going to find that anymore. It's it's kind of the 112 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:35,680 Speaker 1: first step to saying this file is gone, but the 113 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: file is not really gone. It's over in that recycle bin. 114 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:41,560 Speaker 1: Like you could actually open up the recycle bin and 115 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:43,599 Speaker 1: see the files that are inside of it, assuming you 116 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: don't have your recycle bin set to auto delete as 117 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:50,159 Speaker 1: soon as something goes into it. Uh. It means that 118 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:52,760 Speaker 1: you actually have a bit of a safety net, which 119 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: is a good thing, right, because sometimes you might select 120 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,520 Speaker 1: a file to delete and it turns out, whoop, see Daisy, 121 00:06:57,560 --> 00:06:59,719 Speaker 1: I did not mean to actually delete that. That was 122 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:01,240 Speaker 1: a pick you're of my niece, and I want to 123 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:04,840 Speaker 1: keep it forever and ever. So you could go into 124 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: a recycle bin or a trash bin and restore a file. 125 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 1: And that's kind of a nice little way to rescue 126 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: something when you you make just a human mistake. Uh. 127 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:21,600 Speaker 1: And thankfully it does exist, because I have certainly use 128 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:25,520 Speaker 1: that more than once where I've realized that I accidentally 129 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:27,680 Speaker 1: sent the wrong file to delete, and so I go 130 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:31,080 Speaker 1: into the recycled bin and restore it. But what happens 131 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:34,400 Speaker 1: if you choose to empty your recycle bin, because that's 132 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: typically something that you are allowed to do. You might 133 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:42,000 Speaker 1: have it set to automatically empty every certain incremental amount 134 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:45,480 Speaker 1: of time, or it may just be totally manual, uh, 135 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:48,520 Speaker 1: And which case, it's whenever you go in there, or 136 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:51,560 Speaker 1: if you hit a certain threshold of data, like if 137 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: there's a certain amount of data in the recycle bin, 138 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:58,280 Speaker 1: it may auto empty once it hits that threshold. But 139 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,520 Speaker 1: however you choose to do it, what happens when that 140 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 1: recycle bin is emptied. Is the file totally gone? Then no, 141 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:09,240 Speaker 1: it's not at that point. What happens behind the scenes again, 142 00:08:09,320 --> 00:08:12,520 Speaker 1: is the operating system removes the file name entry from 143 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:15,720 Speaker 1: the file system. So now you can't even find it 144 00:08:15,800 --> 00:08:18,640 Speaker 1: within the recycle ben. There's no account of it in 145 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:22,880 Speaker 1: the file system itself. But the physical space on your 146 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:25,360 Speaker 1: hard drive, because remember we're talking about a physical hard 147 00:08:25,440 --> 00:08:29,680 Speaker 1: drive example here, the physical space that that file occupies 148 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:32,520 Speaker 1: still has the file in it. It's just that that 149 00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 1: space is marked as being free or freely available, but 150 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:41,400 Speaker 1: there's actually still the file, the information, the zeros and ones, 151 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:45,280 Speaker 1: they're all still right there. They haven't disappeared. So this 152 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,079 Speaker 1: means that the computer is free to write over that 153 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:52,080 Speaker 1: section of the hard drive space. It doesn't mean it 154 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:55,360 Speaker 1: will right away, but it could. It might happen immediately, 155 00:08:55,679 --> 00:08:58,360 Speaker 1: or it might happen months later, or it might not 156 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,280 Speaker 1: happen at all. So if you lead a file and 157 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:03,400 Speaker 1: a few months later you decide to get rid of 158 00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 1: your computer, the traces of that file may still be 159 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:11,559 Speaker 1: on that hard drive. All the deletion means is saying, hey, computer, 160 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:15,280 Speaker 1: if you need this space to store something, it's totally available, 161 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:17,760 Speaker 1: so just go ahead and move on in. But in 162 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:20,839 Speaker 1: the meantime, I'm just gonna hold this old information that's 163 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:24,560 Speaker 1: sitting here because it's not really relevant to anything anymore. 164 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,280 Speaker 1: Um So, that free designation only means that the file 165 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:32,200 Speaker 1: space is available, not that it is actually empty. So 166 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:34,800 Speaker 1: if you delete a file from your computer and you 167 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:37,440 Speaker 1: empty the recycled bin, the information will still be on 168 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:40,160 Speaker 1: the storage device, and as you save more information to 169 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:43,360 Speaker 1: the computer, the operating system has the option of storing 170 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:47,199 Speaker 1: that new information by writing over the old info represented 171 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:49,960 Speaker 1: by the deleted file. At that point, when you have 172 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,680 Speaker 1: a new file in place, you've effectively erased at least 173 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 1: part of the old information. So let's say we're using 174 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:00,800 Speaker 1: that term paper example again, and you end up getting 175 00:10:00,840 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: a game because of course you wanted to free up 176 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:05,920 Speaker 1: computer space on your computer to install a new game 177 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: on it, right, And when you install it, it starts 178 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:11,480 Speaker 1: to write the data to the hard drive, and part 179 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:14,520 Speaker 1: of the the section of the hard drive it writes 180 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:17,840 Speaker 1: over happens to be part that held that term paper. 181 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,400 Speaker 1: Now your term paper is a race because the hard 182 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 1: drive has been altered so that new data is on 183 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:28,320 Speaker 1: top of what used to be old data, not really 184 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,800 Speaker 1: on top replaces. It replaces the old data, which means 185 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:33,439 Speaker 1: the old data is gone, or at least part of 186 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:35,760 Speaker 1: it's gone. You know. It all depends on where in 187 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:40,160 Speaker 1: the physical space that reallocation happens. So you could have 188 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:42,560 Speaker 1: a tiny bit of the term paper left. It would 189 00:10:42,559 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 1: probably be meaningless bits at that point because you wouldn't 190 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: necessarily have any of the information related to what type 191 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:51,120 Speaker 1: of file it used to be, but there might still 192 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: be some zeros and ones that used to belong to 193 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:55,840 Speaker 1: that term paper on that hard drive, but for the 194 00:10:55,840 --> 00:10:59,040 Speaker 1: most part it would be erased gone because you have 195 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:03,440 Speaker 1: new information takeing up that same physical space. Now, once 196 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,000 Speaker 1: you've done all this, you won't be able to retrieve 197 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:12,360 Speaker 1: a deleted file easily. Right once you set that recycle 198 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:15,440 Speaker 1: bin too empty, the operating system will no longer be 199 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,120 Speaker 1: able to identify that marked file in your system. So 200 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:21,680 Speaker 1: even though it may physically still exist on the hard drive, 201 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:26,520 Speaker 1: there's no record of its existence in the software side, 202 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,760 Speaker 1: right like there's no there's no map to that destination anymore. 203 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:33,920 Speaker 1: So the destination may still exist, but you don't know 204 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,400 Speaker 1: how to get there. This is when you would have 205 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:39,640 Speaker 1: to bring a device to perhaps a service or use 206 00:11:39,679 --> 00:11:45,560 Speaker 1: special software to search for that information and potentially retrieve it. Now, 207 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:47,640 Speaker 1: there's no guarantee that you're going to be able to 208 00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:51,280 Speaker 1: retrieve a deleted file, particularly if you've continued to use 209 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:54,920 Speaker 1: that same device for a good amount of time afterward, 210 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 1: because that increases the chances that you've overwritten that old information. 211 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,880 Speaker 1: But assuming that you haven't, you could potentially retrieve all 212 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:08,160 Speaker 1: sorts of old data. And uh, again, it all really 213 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:10,640 Speaker 1: depends on how much use you've got to that machine 214 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:13,800 Speaker 1: and how frequently you're writing data to it. If it's 215 00:12:13,840 --> 00:12:16,320 Speaker 1: not frequent, then there's a better chance that you'll be 216 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:19,640 Speaker 1: able to retrieve at least some of that information. Now, 217 00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:22,240 Speaker 1: in some ways that's great news, but say you've got 218 00:12:22,280 --> 00:12:25,160 Speaker 1: a computer that had files marked for deletion and later 219 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:28,880 Speaker 1: on you find out that you actually need those files. Uh, 220 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:31,280 Speaker 1: if you are quick enough, and if you're lucky enough, 221 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:34,280 Speaker 1: you may be able to retrieve some or potentially even 222 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:38,320 Speaker 1: all of that data using data retrieval tools. And it 223 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:41,440 Speaker 1: could also mean that if your computer had suffered some damage. 224 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:43,880 Speaker 1: Let's say that you weren't trying to delete files at all, 225 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:46,600 Speaker 1: but your computer has suffered damage that has made it 226 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:50,360 Speaker 1: impossible to access the hard drive. This also means that 227 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:53,040 Speaker 1: you could potentially take a hard drive to one of 228 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:56,920 Speaker 1: these data retrieval services and get information that otherwise would 229 00:12:56,920 --> 00:12:59,240 Speaker 1: be inaccessible to you. I'll talk more about that a 230 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:01,240 Speaker 1: little bit later in the podcast, because there are some 231 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:07,320 Speaker 1: really phenomenal stories about data retrieval in extreme circumstances that 232 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:09,960 Speaker 1: blew my mind when I heard about them. But in 233 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,199 Speaker 1: other ways, this is not such a good thing. It's 234 00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:16,280 Speaker 1: actually a bad thing, because if you've brought let's say 235 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:17,640 Speaker 1: let's let's say you go out and you get a 236 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: brand new computer. You've got an old one that you've 237 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:22,320 Speaker 1: been using for a while and it's time to upgrade. 238 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:23,720 Speaker 1: So you go out and you buy a new computer, 239 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 1: and then you think, well, what do I do with 240 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:27,600 Speaker 1: this old computer? I don't need it, I'm not going 241 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: to use it, so maybe I want to sell it, 242 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:32,240 Speaker 1: or maybe I want to donate it. Well, if you're 243 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:34,960 Speaker 1: going to do that, you're really gonna want to get 244 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:38,880 Speaker 1: rid of any personal information, any data that's sensitive on 245 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:40,719 Speaker 1: that machine. You want to get rid of that as 246 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:43,600 Speaker 1: best you can before you hand it over to someone 247 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:49,160 Speaker 1: else who could potentially exploit that information. So you may 248 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: want to figure out a way of wiping it off 249 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: for good. And one thing you could do is run 250 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:01,200 Speaker 1: a third party program or application that will guarantee that 251 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,760 Speaker 1: it will delete all of the info on your machine. 252 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:07,680 Speaker 1: It does this, by the way, by not just marking 253 00:14:07,679 --> 00:14:12,000 Speaker 1: it for deletion, but then writing random data to the drive, 254 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:17,679 Speaker 1: so just meaningless gibberish. In other words, over all that 255 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:22,240 Speaker 1: space that was marked for deletion, typically it maybe the 256 00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:25,800 Speaker 1: entire drive. Like there are a lot of of options 257 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:30,240 Speaker 1: where you know, there's no subtlety here. It's wipe everything others. 258 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 1: It may be designated parts of a drive, like specific folders. 259 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:37,840 Speaker 1: Sometimes it may be partitions. If you create different partitions 260 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:40,160 Speaker 1: of your hard drive, you might be able to target 261 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:44,720 Speaker 1: a specific partition over others. But my advice is if 262 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:46,840 Speaker 1: you're using one of these, just use it with the 263 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 1: assumption that it's going to hit everything, which means, before 264 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:53,840 Speaker 1: you do this, if you have anything on that machine 265 00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:56,800 Speaker 1: that you want to keep, back up your hard drive. 266 00:14:57,280 --> 00:14:58,840 Speaker 1: I know that seems weird if you're going to get 267 00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:02,320 Speaker 1: rid of everything anyway but back it up. You should 268 00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:06,120 Speaker 1: be backing up your hard drives anyway because stuff goes 269 00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 1: wrong and occasionally you just need to get access to 270 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:12,480 Speaker 1: old stuff, and if you don't back it up, it 271 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:17,040 Speaker 1: can make that much more difficult and expensive. These services 272 00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:20,920 Speaker 1: that do data retrieval can sometimes be pretty costly, depending 273 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:25,640 Speaker 1: upon how extensive the problem is. So if you do 274 00:15:25,840 --> 00:15:28,880 Speaker 1: use one of these services to rewrite data over a 275 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:33,520 Speaker 1: physical hard drive, it takes time. You know, this is 276 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: a hard drive that uses platters, and that means also 277 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:41,760 Speaker 1: that this particular approach creates wear and tear on your device. 278 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,280 Speaker 1: So let me elaborate on that, like how how can 279 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:47,640 Speaker 1: this actually create wear and tear on a hard drive? Well, 280 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:51,000 Speaker 1: the hard drive is the data storage space on a computer, right, 281 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,200 Speaker 1: This is your data repository. This is the thing that 282 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:58,280 Speaker 1: can hold information indefinitely, even after power is cut off 283 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:02,600 Speaker 1: to the computer, that it remains there. It is stable 284 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:06,840 Speaker 1: from between power cycles. So it's not like RAM random 285 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:09,960 Speaker 1: axis memory, which only exists for as long as the 286 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:14,600 Speaker 1: computer receives power. This is semi permanent right until you 287 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:21,440 Speaker 1: markt for deletion. The old physical addresses are stored information 288 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:25,960 Speaker 1: using magnetism. In other words, you're using magnets to create 289 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,240 Speaker 1: the zeros and ones on these platters. It can hold 290 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:33,880 Speaker 1: this information indefinitely. These hard drives have a circular plate 291 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:36,480 Speaker 1: in them. That's what is the platter. So the platter 292 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:40,240 Speaker 1: is a circular plate. They're shiny, and they're at least 293 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:45,400 Speaker 1: coded in magnetic material. Most hard drive platters tend to 294 00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 1: be made out of either glass or aluminum, and then 295 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:51,160 Speaker 1: they're coated with a layer of metal that can be 296 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:57,120 Speaker 1: magnetized and demagnetized. The platter surface contains billions of tiny 297 00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:01,520 Speaker 1: little areas individually distinct from another, and every single one 298 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:04,560 Speaker 1: of those billions of areas can be magnetized, which would 299 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:08,840 Speaker 1: represent the number one in binary, or demagnetized, which would 300 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:12,240 Speaker 1: represent the number zero. Now, using ones and zeros, you 301 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:15,399 Speaker 1: can represent all sorts of data, but it takes a 302 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 1: lot of zeros and ones to represent a relatively small 303 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,560 Speaker 1: amount of information. So, for example, if you wanted to 304 00:17:21,600 --> 00:17:25,320 Speaker 1: create the binary for an upper case A, you would 305 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:31,359 Speaker 1: use the eight digits of zero one zero, zero, zero 306 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,479 Speaker 1: zero zero one. But if you want to do a 307 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:37,600 Speaker 1: lower case A, that would be a zero one one 308 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:42,920 Speaker 1: zero zero zero zero one. Minor distinction, but it makes 309 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:45,919 Speaker 1: a big difference in binary. And when you figure this 310 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:48,080 Speaker 1: out that every single one of those areas can be 311 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:51,280 Speaker 1: either a zero or a one, and it takes eight 312 00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:54,440 Speaker 1: of them just to make one character, you realize, I'm 313 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:57,200 Speaker 1: gonna need a whole lot of those areas to store 314 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:00,920 Speaker 1: any meaningful amount of information. So it really is billions 315 00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:04,920 Speaker 1: of them, and uh, that's why you gotta that's why 316 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:07,200 Speaker 1: you gotta pack all that into the hard drive, otherwise 317 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:09,199 Speaker 1: you wouldn't be able to save any meaningful amount of 318 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:12,520 Speaker 1: information to it. Now, the way a computer writes data 319 00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,720 Speaker 1: to a hard drive involves using a very tiny magnet 320 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:18,359 Speaker 1: on the end of a mechanical arm, and it looks 321 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:20,239 Speaker 1: kind of like a record player, which I know you 322 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:23,359 Speaker 1: guys know about now. Like for the longest time, I 323 00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:26,360 Speaker 1: always had to say, hey, ask your parents, But hey, 324 00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:29,439 Speaker 1: vinyls coming back. People own record players again. There are 325 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 1: bands putting out Vinyl albums. I'm so excited about this, 326 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:34,840 Speaker 1: largely because I no longer have to explain what it 327 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:38,680 Speaker 1: is anymore, because you guys already know. So it looks 328 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:40,640 Speaker 1: kind of like a record player. You've got a mechanical 329 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:42,280 Speaker 1: arm on the end of it. Instead of a needle, 330 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:45,320 Speaker 1: you have a magnet, and the mechanical arm can swing 331 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,680 Speaker 1: back and forth over a spinning platter. It can also 332 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,800 Speaker 1: hit all different spots of that. So you've got this 333 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:56,760 Speaker 1: basic mechanism here. It's pretty simple at least in theory, 334 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:01,240 Speaker 1: and that magnet can be used to magnetize demagnetize each 335 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:04,679 Speaker 1: of the areas on the hard disk. So with this 336 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:07,240 Speaker 1: type of hard drive, the computer tends to store data 337 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:11,080 Speaker 1: for files and physically adjacent or nearby areas. So in 338 00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:13,800 Speaker 1: other words, the data that makes up the files on 339 00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:16,679 Speaker 1: your physical hard drive tends to be located within the 340 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,600 Speaker 1: same general area of a platter, kind of like a 341 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,840 Speaker 1: track on a vinyl record album. So each song obviously 342 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:27,520 Speaker 1: is one section of a track that's in a concentric 343 00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:31,760 Speaker 1: circle around this vinyl disc, right, Because if you just 344 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:36,520 Speaker 1: randomly assigned bits and pieces of songs throughout an album, 345 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:39,720 Speaker 1: it would be a mess. You wouldn't have anything really 346 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,520 Speaker 1: that you could easily listen to and make it meaningful. 347 00:19:42,840 --> 00:19:46,320 Speaker 1: Same thing with hard drive platters. They tend to collect 348 00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:49,800 Speaker 1: all the data for a file within adjacent spots on 349 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:53,040 Speaker 1: the platter, if possible. It also makes it easier and 350 00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: faster when a hard drive is reading data back that 351 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 1: it can just focus on a specific section of the 352 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,960 Speaker 1: our drive platter and pull that information out. If it 353 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,919 Speaker 1: had to skip all over the platter, that would take 354 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: up more time and create more wear and tear on 355 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:11,000 Speaker 1: the system. Those areas of data are called tracks, by 356 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:14,520 Speaker 1: the way, and they, like I said, are concentric circles 357 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:17,720 Speaker 1: their pathways that are on the platters themselves. Each track 358 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:21,879 Speaker 1: inside of it has smaller areas called sectors, and the 359 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:25,239 Speaker 1: computer keeps a record of all the sectors, and it 360 00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,840 Speaker 1: knows which ones have files stored on them and which 361 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:30,200 Speaker 1: ones are free to write over. Now, the free ones 362 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:32,760 Speaker 1: may also have data on them, but it just means 363 00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:35,040 Speaker 1: this is data that's not important, so you can write 364 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:37,520 Speaker 1: over it whenever you want. In a Windows machine, we 365 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:41,280 Speaker 1: call this record the file Allocation table or f a 366 00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: T or FAT. Now, notice all of that is for 367 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:47,640 Speaker 1: physical hard drives. If you have a machine that uses 368 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:51,359 Speaker 1: a solid state drive, it works a lot differently. Solid 369 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:55,160 Speaker 1: state drives will store data on lots of different available 370 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:57,919 Speaker 1: areas within the drive, so you don't necessarily end up 371 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,160 Speaker 1: with a sector or track of related data. The data 372 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:03,160 Speaker 1: is all on the drive, but it could be broken 373 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:06,159 Speaker 1: up into smaller pieces, kind of like Mike TV and 374 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,800 Speaker 1: Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory, you know, when he's 375 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:13,160 Speaker 1: being broadcast over the year. But they still store data 376 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:14,959 Speaker 1: in the forms of zeros and ones. All of that 377 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: is still the same. It's still based on this binary code. 378 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:21,720 Speaker 1: And I'll get into how so these solid state drives 379 00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,760 Speaker 1: organized data in just a minute, because it's important and 380 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:27,679 Speaker 1: it's a little weird. So if you wanted to wipe 381 00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:30,879 Speaker 1: out a file on a physical hard drive, you'd want 382 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:33,160 Speaker 1: to use a program that would identify all the free 383 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,320 Speaker 1: areas on a hard disk platter. And then override that 384 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,520 Speaker 1: gibberish on top of those areas. And some of the programs, 385 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:41,920 Speaker 1: such as the ones used by military and intelligence agencies, 386 00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:44,600 Speaker 1: will do this more than once to ensure that all 387 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:48,280 Speaker 1: records have been completely eradicated, So they'll override a hard 388 00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:54,000 Speaker 1: drive two or three times, which is frankly overkill if 389 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,840 Speaker 1: you're doing it correctly, but it really does make sure 390 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:00,919 Speaker 1: that that data is irretrievable at least uh there's no 391 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:04,160 Speaker 1: there's nothing meaningful on there because it's been just completely 392 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 1: replaced by gibberish multiple times. This process does take time, 393 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:12,840 Speaker 1: and since you are just writing meaningless information onto a 394 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,160 Speaker 1: physical hard drive, you know, think about saving a really 395 00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:18,399 Speaker 1: big file to your hard drive and how long that 396 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:22,800 Speaker 1: can take. Well, if you're formatting an entired hard drive, 397 00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:25,280 Speaker 1: this is gonna take as long as you know that 398 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,439 Speaker 1: hard drive can you know whatever that capacity is and 399 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,960 Speaker 1: whatever it's spinning rate is as well, so that ReadWrite 400 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:34,679 Speaker 1: rate is gonna matter a lot, and also just the 401 00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,760 Speaker 1: capacity of the hard drive if it's really big, it's 402 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,200 Speaker 1: gonna take a really long time to write meaningless data 403 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:42,600 Speaker 1: to every single free sector on there. And like I 404 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:44,920 Speaker 1: said earlier, it can contribute to wear and tear on 405 00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:47,280 Speaker 1: the hard drive, because you gotta remember, these are mechanical 406 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:51,760 Speaker 1: elements in that system, right, There's that mechanical arm, there's 407 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:55,439 Speaker 1: the the plate that spins along the for the for 408 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:58,760 Speaker 1: the platter to rotate properly. Those pieces all wear out 409 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:01,720 Speaker 1: over time, and by overriding a hard drive, you're really 410 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:04,280 Speaker 1: putting them to work more than they normally would be. 411 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,240 Speaker 1: Now that's not to say that by running a program 412 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,399 Speaker 1: like this you would completely wear out your machine, but 413 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,440 Speaker 1: it will hasten the eventual need to replace the hard drive, 414 00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:16,879 Speaker 1: because eventually all physical hard drives will fail. That's just 415 00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:19,320 Speaker 1: a truth. Um, if you use it long enough, it 416 00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:21,200 Speaker 1: will fail. Now, if you get rid of the computer 417 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:24,240 Speaker 1: before you get to that point, sure, technically you got 418 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:28,280 Speaker 1: around it. But if you're just constantly using a hard drive, 419 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,200 Speaker 1: sooner or later it's gonna it's gonna fail because those 420 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,320 Speaker 1: mechanical parts are just gonna wear out. Also, most of 421 00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:38,680 Speaker 1: these programs that I know of do this indiscriminately as 422 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:41,240 Speaker 1: to which parts of the hard drive get over written. 423 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 1: So that's a nice way of saying they'll nuke it 424 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 1: from orbit just to be sure, which includes the deleted 425 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:50,919 Speaker 1: data you definitely didn't want anyone to have any access to, 426 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:54,240 Speaker 1: plus everything else as well. So if you plan on 427 00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:56,600 Speaker 1: using this method to clean a hard disk that's still 428 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,480 Speaker 1: has stuff on it that you want to keep, like 429 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,760 Speaker 1: I said, pump those breaks just a little bit. Make 430 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,160 Speaker 1: sure you have a backup copy of your hard drive 431 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:06,960 Speaker 1: that you're going to keep, that you know in case 432 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:08,720 Speaker 1: there's any relevant data on there that you need to 433 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:12,720 Speaker 1: have access to later on, and then do it. Because 434 00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:16,119 Speaker 1: if it's doing its job correctly and it allows you 435 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,200 Speaker 1: to designate specific specific parts of your hard drive for 436 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,320 Speaker 1: this process, you might be fine and everything you wanted 437 00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:24,679 Speaker 1: to keep might still be there. But if things go 438 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,920 Speaker 1: wrong or you don't use the software properly, or it's 439 00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:30,879 Speaker 1: software that's meant to tackle an entire hard drive and 440 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:34,040 Speaker 1: not just the bits that you want to get rid of, 441 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,760 Speaker 1: you'll be thankful to have that backup copy. Solid state 442 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:42,040 Speaker 1: drives don't have any moving parts, so the element of 443 00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:44,280 Speaker 1: wear and tear that I was just talking about isn't 444 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,399 Speaker 1: as big an issue. There is wear and tear on 445 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,440 Speaker 1: solid state drive, but not through mechanical stress. I did 446 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,159 Speaker 1: mention that things get a little weird with them. So 447 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: here's my attempt to explain how a computer stores data 448 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:57,959 Speaker 1: in a solid state drive. Now, imagine that the solid 449 00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:02,000 Speaker 1: state drive has a collection of datas storage units called blocks. 450 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:05,919 Speaker 1: All right, so you've got blocks. Within those blocks, you 451 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:08,679 Speaker 1: have multiple pages. So you can kind of think of 452 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:13,000 Speaker 1: a block like a book. Right, So solid state drive 453 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:17,520 Speaker 1: has a whole library shelf filled with blank books inside 454 00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:21,240 Speaker 1: of it. Each book has an equal number of blank pages. 455 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:25,400 Speaker 1: We're just gonna use examples, like saying sixteen, So each 456 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:29,119 Speaker 1: book has sixteen pages in it blank pages. You can 457 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,440 Speaker 1: write data to any blank page, or really, the computer 458 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:35,600 Speaker 1: can write data to any blank page. A single file 459 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,240 Speaker 1: might require more than one page within a block or 460 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:42,960 Speaker 1: a book. So let's say a file takes up three pages. 461 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,199 Speaker 1: That's fine. You still have thirteen more pages left in 462 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:48,640 Speaker 1: that book where you can write data to it. So 463 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:50,920 Speaker 1: let's say that we've got a block that can hold 464 00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:55,240 Speaker 1: sixteen pages. You write data to that, or you send 465 00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:57,639 Speaker 1: a command to the computer that writes data to the 466 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,160 Speaker 1: first five of those. You still have eleven page is left. Now, 467 00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:04,480 Speaker 1: let's say you eventually fill up those other eleven pages 468 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:08,800 Speaker 1: saving other stuff to your computer's hard drive. And now 469 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,680 Speaker 1: the block is full. All sixteen pages have stuff on it. 470 00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:15,240 Speaker 1: It cannot fit more pages. You have other blocks in 471 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:18,240 Speaker 1: the drive. It's not a drive that only has one block, 472 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:22,159 Speaker 1: but that specific block completely full. You can't add anything 473 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,040 Speaker 1: to it. Then, let's say you realize that one file, 474 00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: let's say that's stored on page number two. One file 475 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:33,040 Speaker 1: is superfluous. It offends your sensibilities, and you wish to 476 00:26:33,080 --> 00:26:36,520 Speaker 1: delete it post haste. But hang on their sport. Because 477 00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:39,359 Speaker 1: ssd s don't behave the way hard disk drives do. 478 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,760 Speaker 1: You can't just delete a single page within a block. 479 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:47,400 Speaker 1: You actually have to delete an entire block with all 480 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:49,920 Speaker 1: of its pages. In other words, you can't just rip 481 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:52,320 Speaker 1: out one page of a book. You have to erase 482 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,680 Speaker 1: the entire book to get rid of that one page. 483 00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:59,080 Speaker 1: So how do you do that? How do you delete 484 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,160 Speaker 1: one page out of a block while keeping everything else? 485 00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,400 Speaker 1: If you have to delete an entire block at a time, Well, 486 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:09,359 Speaker 1: this turns into a super simple version of the old 487 00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:13,560 Speaker 1: puzzle that states you got a rowboat, a wolf, a goat, 488 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:16,320 Speaker 1: and a cabbage. Now the boat is big enough to 489 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,480 Speaker 1: hold you plus one of the other three companions at 490 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:24,360 Speaker 1: a time, And yes, I'm promoting cabbage to companion status 491 00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:26,960 Speaker 1: because I've seen Doctor Who, and some of those companions 492 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:31,360 Speaker 1: were thick. Anyway, you need to transport all three across 493 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,720 Speaker 1: a river. But if you leave the goat with the cabbage, 494 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,119 Speaker 1: the goat's gonna eat the cabbage. If you leave the 495 00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:38,639 Speaker 1: wolf with the goat, the wolf will eat the goat. 496 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:42,400 Speaker 1: The cabbage doesn't eat anybody. It's a vegetarian. So how 497 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,840 Speaker 1: do you get all three across the river? Except, of course, 498 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:50,000 Speaker 1: with the SSD puzzle it is way easier. And I 499 00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:53,240 Speaker 1: bet you've already figured out how it works. But if 500 00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,040 Speaker 1: you haven't and you want to hear the answer, you're 501 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:57,520 Speaker 1: gonna have to wait just a second while we take 502 00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:08,000 Speaker 1: a quick break to thank our sponsor. Her. Okay, I 503 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:10,280 Speaker 1: promised you an answer, and I guess I'm gonna answer 504 00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:12,600 Speaker 1: both riddles. So the first riddle, you know, the one 505 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,400 Speaker 1: about the goat and the cabbage and the wolf, Well, 506 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:18,399 Speaker 1: you would take the goat across the river first, because 507 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:20,320 Speaker 1: the wolf is not gonna eat the cabbage, and the 508 00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:23,199 Speaker 1: cabbage will not eat the wolf. So you leave the 509 00:28:23,240 --> 00:28:25,119 Speaker 1: goat on the other side of the river. Then you 510 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,919 Speaker 1: row back across. You pick up the cabbage, and you 511 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:30,240 Speaker 1: roll back to the other side of the river. Then 512 00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,440 Speaker 1: you leave the cabbage on that side, but you take 513 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,200 Speaker 1: the goat, because if you leave the goat and the 514 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,080 Speaker 1: cabbage together, the goats gonna eat the cabbage. So you 515 00:28:36,119 --> 00:28:38,640 Speaker 1: bring the goat back across to the side where you started. 516 00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:40,800 Speaker 1: Then you take the wolf, but of course you have 517 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:42,520 Speaker 1: to leave the goat. You can't take both the wolf 518 00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: and the goat. Boat boats not big enough, so you 519 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:47,080 Speaker 1: put the goat back on the shore, You put the 520 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,480 Speaker 1: wolf in the rowboat, you row back across. You put 521 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,680 Speaker 1: the wolf on the side with the cabbage, go back 522 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,320 Speaker 1: across one more time to grab the goat, and final 523 00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:58,440 Speaker 1: time you row back across, and then you the goat, 524 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,320 Speaker 1: the wolf, and the cabbage can carry on your merry way, 525 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,880 Speaker 1: happy knowing that you solved a basic riddle and that 526 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:09,880 Speaker 1: you totally blasted your packs. Bra that's a lot of rowing. 527 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:13,560 Speaker 1: You really got some cardio done. Well done. But for 528 00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:16,959 Speaker 1: the solid state drives, the answer is actually much more simple. 529 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,840 Speaker 1: So if you need to delete a file, what actually 530 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,440 Speaker 1: happens is you have to copy all the pages inside 531 00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 1: a block containing the files you want to keep, and 532 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:31,320 Speaker 1: only those and you have to put them over into 533 00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:35,040 Speaker 1: a new block. So you've got block number one and 534 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:38,200 Speaker 1: it's got, you know, all sixteen pages filled out, and 535 00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:40,240 Speaker 1: you want to get rid of page number two. What 536 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:42,960 Speaker 1: you would do is you would copy pages one and 537 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:46,640 Speaker 1: then three through sixteen and poured them over to block 538 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,040 Speaker 1: number two, which has empty pages in it. Then you 539 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,280 Speaker 1: come back to block number one, which still has all 540 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: sixteen pages. Right, we haven't done anything yet to those, 541 00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 1: so you actually have copies of information in two different 542 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:03,120 Speaker 1: blocks at this point. Then you delete all the pages 543 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:07,239 Speaker 1: inside block number one, including page number two. This is 544 00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:09,240 Speaker 1: just to get rid of page number two. Right, You 545 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:13,640 Speaker 1: have to go through and copy fifteen pages, paste them 546 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,760 Speaker 1: into another block, and then delete sixteen pages just to 547 00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:20,200 Speaker 1: get rid of one page. That seems kind of ridiculous, right, 548 00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:23,040 Speaker 1: seems like a lot of work. Well, it also creates 549 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:24,880 Speaker 1: wear and tear on the flash drive. Now there's no 550 00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,440 Speaker 1: or solid state drive, I should say, there's no moving 551 00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: parts here, right, you don't have any mechanical things to 552 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,800 Speaker 1: worry about. But there is a limited number of times 553 00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:39,000 Speaker 1: that you can write to a block, and eventually you're 554 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,840 Speaker 1: going to run out of that many times, and that's 555 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: when the capacity for your drive starts to diminish, so 556 00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:49,240 Speaker 1: you can actually see It's kind of like seeing how 557 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:54,400 Speaker 1: rechargeable batteries get less effective over multiple recharges, same kind 558 00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: of thing, and that you'll see the storage capacity of 559 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:03,640 Speaker 1: a solid state I decrease over a long amount of time. Uh, 560 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,200 Speaker 1: the amount of time is largely dependent upon how big 561 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: the solid state drive is because it can sometimes distribute 562 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:13,120 Speaker 1: this across a lot of different blocks. And how frequently 563 00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:16,120 Speaker 1: you do this process. By the way, this process is 564 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,280 Speaker 1: called garbage collection, and I am not making that up. 565 00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:21,800 Speaker 1: That is what is referred to when you're trying to 566 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:25,840 Speaker 1: do this deletion process through solid state drives. So you 567 00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:28,840 Speaker 1: wanna be careful with how often you do this, how 568 00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,320 Speaker 1: frequently this happens. A lot of sites suggest that this 569 00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:39,720 Speaker 1: is done regularly but not frequently, so maybe check into that, 570 00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,520 Speaker 1: because you want to make sure that you're not decreasing 571 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:45,880 Speaker 1: the useful lifespan of your storage media, otherwise you're gonna 572 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,840 Speaker 1: have to replace it. And while story storage has gotten 573 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,440 Speaker 1: cheaper over time, it's still you know, you don't want 574 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:54,960 Speaker 1: to have to replace it unless you absolutely need to. Now, 575 00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:56,880 Speaker 1: to get a little bit further into the weeds on this. 576 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,160 Speaker 1: The storage media itself does not know about files marked 577 00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:04,360 Speaker 1: for deletion, and the operating system doesn't know which blocks 578 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:07,600 Speaker 1: have data in them. The operating system is essentially saying, 579 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,840 Speaker 1: right files to this, or delete files to this. The 580 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:14,360 Speaker 1: solid state drive is just thinking, all right, well, I 581 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:17,000 Speaker 1: need this is where something is, this is where something 582 00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: can go. So let's use another example to explain sort 583 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:22,560 Speaker 1: of how this works, because it's a little tricky to 584 00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:26,320 Speaker 1: think about. So you've got a block with sixteen free pages. 585 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,959 Speaker 1: Then you write stuff to twelve of those pages. So 586 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,360 Speaker 1: the last two of those pages, pages eleven and twelve, 587 00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:35,320 Speaker 1: represent a file that you decide you want to delete. 588 00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,160 Speaker 1: So pages one through ten you don't want to touch. 589 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:40,320 Speaker 1: Pages eleven and twelve you no longer need them. You 590 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,920 Speaker 1: want to delete them. In your operating system, you select 591 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: that file, you delete it. Everything from your side looks 592 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,680 Speaker 1: like it's gone. There's no way for you to access 593 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:53,040 Speaker 1: that file anymore. You can't even see that it exists. Uh. 594 00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:55,840 Speaker 1: The operating system essentially says, no problem, that file is 595 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:59,800 Speaker 1: totes history, but the solid state drive doesn't do anything yet. 596 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,960 Speaker 1: You then decide later on to save a new file 597 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,480 Speaker 1: to the solid state drive, and it would go into 598 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:10,000 Speaker 1: the first two empty pages, and that would be eleven 599 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,320 Speaker 1: and twelve because you had set those to delete. But 600 00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:15,560 Speaker 1: the solid state drive didn't understand that until it gets 601 00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:17,880 Speaker 1: the command to write two pages eleven and twelve. It 602 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,680 Speaker 1: goes to right to eleven and twelve, sees that eleven 603 00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:24,200 Speaker 1: and twelve have data in them, the data from the 604 00:33:24,240 --> 00:33:28,320 Speaker 1: deleted file, and then adds it to thirteen and fourteen 605 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:33,280 Speaker 1: pages thirteen and fourteen, But it designates at that point 606 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:38,160 Speaker 1: pages eleven and twelve for a garbage collection. Essentially says, 607 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:41,560 Speaker 1: the next time you do garbage collection, these two pages 608 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:44,680 Speaker 1: are not needed anymore and can be wiped. So we 609 00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,680 Speaker 1: when we do that process I talked about earlier about 610 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:51,440 Speaker 1: copying all the pages to another block, don't copy pages 611 00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:56,040 Speaker 1: eleven and twelve. We don't need them. But this is 612 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,280 Speaker 1: not terribly efficient because it could mean that you've got 613 00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:03,080 Speaker 1: an entire block copied over before any of this gets 614 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:06,600 Speaker 1: marked for deletion. It could mean that you're essentially increasing 615 00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:10,719 Speaker 1: wear and tear. It's called right amplification because you're amplifying 616 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:13,319 Speaker 1: the number of files that need to be written to 617 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:16,799 Speaker 1: a new block. Because it hasn't picked up the fact 618 00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:20,600 Speaker 1: that those files are actually supposed to be gone. There 619 00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:24,040 Speaker 1: is an exception to this, obviously. There there's a application 620 00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:27,000 Speaker 1: called trim t r I M. This is a command 621 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,840 Speaker 1: that helps reduce the number of times data gets copied 622 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:33,799 Speaker 1: during that garbage collection process. Trim tells the solid state 623 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:37,920 Speaker 1: drive which files and therefore which pages you have marked 624 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:42,160 Speaker 1: for deletion. So the logical layer on the solid state 625 00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:45,520 Speaker 1: drive knows that pages eleven and twelve can be ignored 626 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:48,799 Speaker 1: during garbage collection, so they won't be copied to a 627 00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:52,280 Speaker 1: new block. It takes one step out of the process 628 00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,600 Speaker 1: I just described a minute ago. Now, one thing you 629 00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:59,400 Speaker 1: can and should do with solid state drives is encrypt 630 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:02,640 Speaker 1: the draw. If you can encrypt the data that's stored there, 631 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:05,319 Speaker 1: which means you create a strong password that you use 632 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:07,960 Speaker 1: to access that information. And if you don't have the 633 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:12,040 Speaker 1: strong password, then everything appears to be meaningless data. It's 634 00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:16,080 Speaker 1: all encrypted and you can't read it easily without decrypting 635 00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 1: it first. Even if someone gets access to your drive 636 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:23,480 Speaker 1: at that point, the information will be difficult, if not impossible, 637 00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:28,680 Speaker 1: to access. Assuming that you don't have a ridiculous farm 638 00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:33,719 Speaker 1: of GPUs working to decrypt through brute force it it 639 00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:36,000 Speaker 1: would be pretty hard to get access to that information. 640 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:40,440 Speaker 1: As for a racing solid state drives permanently, there are 641 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:42,440 Speaker 1: a lot of utility programs you can use that are 642 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:45,080 Speaker 1: meant to do that reliably. They say that they are 643 00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:47,960 Speaker 1: able to delete data off of s s d s 644 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:52,520 Speaker 1: with a certain degree of of guarantee. The complexity of 645 00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:55,480 Speaker 1: solid state drives, however, can lead to mistakes, either in 646 00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:58,239 Speaker 1: deleting something you didn't want to get rid of or 647 00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:01,400 Speaker 1: overlooking data that you meant to hasted into the ABYSS. 648 00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:04,040 Speaker 1: And according to one study by a group of engineers 649 00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:08,160 Speaker 1: at the University of California, it's not exactly a guarantee. 650 00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:11,000 Speaker 1: They use different methods of trying to delete data from 651 00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:13,839 Speaker 1: an SSD, and they found that the process could leave 652 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:18,760 Speaker 1: behind anything from four percent to seventy of the original data, which, 653 00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:22,040 Speaker 1: depending on what that data is, could be really damaging 654 00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:24,480 Speaker 1: to you. So that's kind of scary to think about, 655 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:28,520 Speaker 1: where the process of deleting is not necessarily a guarantee 656 00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:31,840 Speaker 1: that the information is actually gone if you're really really 657 00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:35,319 Speaker 1: determined to try and retrieve the data. Alright, but let's 658 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:40,160 Speaker 1: say you've deleted the information, and you absolutely want to 659 00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:43,360 Speaker 1: make sure that no one ever gets access to that data, 660 00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:46,960 Speaker 1: just in case, even if it's just a smidgen of 661 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,799 Speaker 1: that data, how do you guarantee this well, Once you're 662 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:53,479 Speaker 1: finished using software to wipe the disk, you can move 663 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:58,600 Speaker 1: on to more physical solutions. So with hard disk drives, 664 00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:00,359 Speaker 1: one thing you could do is pull the drive out 665 00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:03,160 Speaker 1: of the computer case and use a good old hammer 666 00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:06,200 Speaker 1: and nail so that you can drive a nail through 667 00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:09,000 Speaker 1: the case of the hard drive to puncture the disk, 668 00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:12,440 Speaker 1: potentially doing this in multiple places on the disk to 669 00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:16,439 Speaker 1: make sure it's impossible to read later on. Now, if 670 00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,480 Speaker 1: you want to do this, you have to promise me 671 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,560 Speaker 1: to do the following things. First, wear eye protection because 672 00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:24,919 Speaker 1: you never know when something's gonna fly off there. Wear 673 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:29,960 Speaker 1: some heavy gloves because thumbs and hammers love to get together, 674 00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:32,359 Speaker 1: so it's good for you to protect yourself because you're 675 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:35,120 Speaker 1: gonna be holding a nail on a metal case and 676 00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:38,640 Speaker 1: then striking it with a heavy hammer, and put the 677 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,680 Speaker 1: hard drive on top of a block of wood like 678 00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:44,239 Speaker 1: a two by four or something, because there's a good 679 00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:46,920 Speaker 1: chance you're gonna drive that nail straight through the case. 680 00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:48,760 Speaker 1: And if you do You don't want to damage whatever 681 00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:51,840 Speaker 1: is on the underside of that hard drive, So follow 682 00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:55,640 Speaker 1: those rules if you're gonna do this, and be very careful. Now, 683 00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:57,680 Speaker 1: depending upon what the platter is made out of, you 684 00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:00,680 Speaker 1: might even shatter it. Right. It may not just have 685 00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:03,040 Speaker 1: a nail driven through it. It might shatter the drive, 686 00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:05,640 Speaker 1: which is good news for you, since it would be 687 00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:09,799 Speaker 1: exceedingly difficult to put together a shattered drive in any 688 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:13,160 Speaker 1: meaningful way. Chances are that data is just irretrievable. You've 689 00:38:13,200 --> 00:38:19,040 Speaker 1: gone beyond the capabilities of the data retrieval industry. But 690 00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,160 Speaker 1: with solid state drives, you really need to smash the 691 00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:25,080 Speaker 1: chips that hold the data. So that typically means you 692 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:29,120 Speaker 1: have to pull apart the drive, find the relevant chips 693 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:32,880 Speaker 1: inside of it, then swing a hammer and start smashing 694 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,440 Speaker 1: like crazy. Now, sometimes it could be a little tricky 695 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:37,879 Speaker 1: figuring out which chips are the ones that actually hold 696 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:40,360 Speaker 1: the data, So in those cases, just go nuts and 697 00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:44,239 Speaker 1: smash all of them. You know, why leave anything out 698 00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:48,120 Speaker 1: be safe. Alternatively, you could make use of a service 699 00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 1: that will physically destroy your hardware for you, and typically 700 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:54,600 Speaker 1: they use a shredder, which is kind of like an 701 00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:58,800 Speaker 1: industrial version of a wood chipper, something that uses very 702 00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:04,840 Speaker 1: high power, very uh strong hydraulics typically that will grind 703 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:10,120 Speaker 1: the stuff into tiny pieces. These shredding services will reduce 704 00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:16,120 Speaker 1: your media to unusable pieces of junk. I even found 705 00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:19,480 Speaker 1: a few that claimed they follow environmental best practices so 706 00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:22,120 Speaker 1: that they reduced the impact those materials might have on 707 00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:26,040 Speaker 1: the surrounding environment. Because a lot of computer equipment contains 708 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:28,359 Speaker 1: stuff in it that we would rather not release out 709 00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:31,960 Speaker 1: into the wild, like lead or mercury or other potentially 710 00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:35,799 Speaker 1: harmful materials. So it is something that you want to 711 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:40,640 Speaker 1: be careful about and responsible with because it's one of 712 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:42,520 Speaker 1: the big problems with e waste. You may have heard 713 00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:45,360 Speaker 1: previous episodes where I talked about e waste and how 714 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,920 Speaker 1: that can contribute to environmental problems. You want to find 715 00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:51,880 Speaker 1: a company that has a good reputation for dealing with 716 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:54,960 Speaker 1: this in a responsible way. For hard disk drives, the 717 00:39:55,239 --> 00:39:58,600 Speaker 1: physical types, some services might first make use of a 718 00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:02,240 Speaker 1: really powerful magnet before going on to physically destroy the media. 719 00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:04,920 Speaker 1: That's because the magnet can change the sectors of a 720 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:07,520 Speaker 1: hard drive so that they all align with the magnetic 721 00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:11,080 Speaker 1: field of the magnet itself. At least for older hard drives, 722 00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:14,480 Speaker 1: that's a possibility. It certainly works for older forms of 723 00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,640 Speaker 1: magnetic storage in general, like VHS tapes or a credit 724 00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:20,799 Speaker 1: card stripes. If you've ever had a credit card and 725 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:23,239 Speaker 1: you've stored it next to like, back to back with 726 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:26,080 Speaker 1: another credit card, you may find that suddenly it's not 727 00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:29,400 Speaker 1: working anymore unless people physically put the number into a machine, 728 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:32,960 Speaker 1: the stripe no longer seems to work. Well, that's a 729 00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:37,000 Speaker 1: magnetic stripe, and if it's exposed to a strong enough magnet, 730 00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,759 Speaker 1: it can demagnetize that magnetic stripe, and then you have 731 00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:43,680 Speaker 1: meaningless data on there. It's no longer associated with your account. 732 00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:47,040 Speaker 1: This is why you shouldn't have a credit card stored 733 00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:51,800 Speaker 1: in a clutch or a wallet that has a magnetic clasp, 734 00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:57,640 Speaker 1: because it can in fact affect that stripe. Now, hard 735 00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:02,439 Speaker 1: drives are a little more dy with that they may 736 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:07,759 Speaker 1: not even be affected by neodymium magnet At least the 737 00:41:07,840 --> 00:41:10,880 Speaker 1: data might not be. It may not even affect a 738 00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:13,919 Speaker 1: single bit stored on that hard drive, depending upon when 739 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:17,759 Speaker 1: the hard drive was manufactured. So what is actually happening here? While, 740 00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:24,080 Speaker 1: as it turns out, materials have what is called coercivity, 741 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:29,880 Speaker 1: that's coercivity Like coercion, in a way, coercivity refers to 742 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:34,240 Speaker 1: materials resistance to being demagnetized. So if you magnetize something 743 00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:37,520 Speaker 1: and it has high coercivity, it means that it is 744 00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:41,680 Speaker 1: resistant to having that magnetization altered in any way. Um 745 00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:45,000 Speaker 1: if it's if that coercivity is lower than it means 746 00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:48,799 Speaker 1: the magnetization can easily or more easily be altered. The 747 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,160 Speaker 1: unit we associate with this trait is called the Ersted 748 00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,759 Speaker 1: O E R S T E d uh. And like 749 00:41:56,760 --> 00:41:58,880 Speaker 1: I said, the higher the coercivity, the less likely the 750 00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:01,919 Speaker 1: magnetic field will dem agnetize a material. Now, VHS tapes 751 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:05,160 Speaker 1: and credit card stripes typically falls somewhere in the five 752 00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:10,080 Speaker 1: hundred to one thousand Ersted range. Hard Drives have higher coercivity, 753 00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:14,440 Speaker 1: especially more recent physical hard drives, and some of them 754 00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:18,040 Speaker 1: are enough to protect it from any sort of accidental demagnetization, 755 00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:19,600 Speaker 1: which is a good thing. I mean. You may have 756 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,920 Speaker 1: heard about ancient computers, and by that I mean the 757 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:25,319 Speaker 1: ones that we had in the eighties and nineties where 758 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,040 Speaker 1: you didn't want to have a magnet anywhere close to 759 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:29,680 Speaker 1: a floppy disk because you could demagnetize the floppy disk 760 00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:31,520 Speaker 1: and destroy all the data on it. Well, there was 761 00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:33,160 Speaker 1: a lot of fear that the same thing could happen 762 00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:35,359 Speaker 1: to hard drives, But as it turns out, you need 763 00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:38,640 Speaker 1: a really, really powerful magnet to do that, which is 764 00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:43,960 Speaker 1: why these data destruction services use extremely powerful electro magnets 765 00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:46,600 Speaker 1: to do this. But more and more of them have 766 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:50,960 Speaker 1: been leaning heavily on physically destroying the media itself because 767 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,720 Speaker 1: it's less expensive and it's more efficient when it turns 768 00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:57,719 Speaker 1: when all of a sudden and done. So you don't 769 00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:00,239 Speaker 1: see it as frequently now as you used to, but 770 00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:02,560 Speaker 1: it used to be a kind of standard part of 771 00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:07,200 Speaker 1: the procedure. And I need to stress this. Do not 772 00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:10,480 Speaker 1: bring a magnet near a hard drive in order to 773 00:43:10,520 --> 00:43:13,719 Speaker 1: demonstrate how robust that hard drive is, how it can 774 00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:16,760 Speaker 1: keep data intact even in the presence of a strong 775 00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:19,359 Speaker 1: manetic field. Now why do I say that, I mean 776 00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:22,920 Speaker 1: I just finished saying that. Chances are you're not going 777 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:26,120 Speaker 1: to alter one bit of information stored on a hard 778 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:30,120 Speaker 1: drive using a magnet. Why keep it away? Well, because 779 00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:33,600 Speaker 1: there are things inside these physical hard drives that are 780 00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:36,279 Speaker 1: reactive to magnets, like they will be attracted to a 781 00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:40,760 Speaker 1: magnet parts of the mechanical systems, like the electric motors 782 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:45,600 Speaker 1: and the mechanical arm and various elements that make everything work. 783 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:49,040 Speaker 1: You could do physical damage to the hard drive itself. 784 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:52,880 Speaker 1: So while the bits would all be still perfectly intact 785 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:56,360 Speaker 1: on the platter, you know, you hadn't change the magnetization 786 00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:59,600 Speaker 1: of the platter. You could wreck the workings of the 787 00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:02,600 Speaker 1: hard of itself. You could tear it apart from the inside, 788 00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:05,799 Speaker 1: which sounds cool, but then you're not going to be 789 00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:07,880 Speaker 1: able to get to your data without taking your hard 790 00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,720 Speaker 1: drive to some sort of repair shop or data retrieval system, 791 00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:13,239 Speaker 1: and then you've really made it expensive. So keep those 792 00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:17,759 Speaker 1: magnets away from the hard drives, all right. Now, let's 793 00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:20,160 Speaker 1: talk about trying to get data back. What if our 794 00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:22,960 Speaker 1: computers have been through some sort of trauma and we 795 00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:25,359 Speaker 1: need to retrieve data on it. So we haven't tried 796 00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:27,600 Speaker 1: to delete the information In this case, it's not like 797 00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:29,759 Speaker 1: we've deleted something and then oh no, I need to 798 00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:33,440 Speaker 1: get that file back. This is whoops, I accidentally drove 799 00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:36,840 Speaker 1: over my laptop or a computer was caught in some 800 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:41,000 Speaker 1: other terrible accident. How do we get something back when 801 00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:43,480 Speaker 1: we can no longer actually run the computer, or it 802 00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:46,879 Speaker 1: can no longer access information off the hard drive. Well, 803 00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:49,520 Speaker 1: there are businesses that are dedicated to doing this, and 804 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:53,040 Speaker 1: some of them have had remarkable success, even in extreme cases. 805 00:44:53,600 --> 00:44:57,719 Speaker 1: So remember how I said. Physical drives can experience wear 806 00:44:57,719 --> 00:45:01,160 Speaker 1: and tear to a point where they're not really operable anymore. 807 00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:03,400 Speaker 1: A few things can make the mechanical operation of a 808 00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:06,680 Speaker 1: hard drive impossible. You could have a broken motor. You 809 00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:08,960 Speaker 1: can have a platter that gets warped and so it 810 00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:11,879 Speaker 1: can no longer spend freely inside the hard drive, which 811 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:15,640 Speaker 1: makes it and it makes the data inaccessible. In those cases, 812 00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:18,719 Speaker 1: bringing the hard drive to a data retrieval services a 813 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:22,400 Speaker 1: company that could be your best bet. Now, those services 814 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,520 Speaker 1: typically operate a space that's similar to a clean room 815 00:45:25,520 --> 00:45:30,319 Speaker 1: in a microprocessor manufacturing facility. These are rooms where you 816 00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:33,239 Speaker 1: have really powerful machines that are circulating all the air, 817 00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,360 Speaker 1: which filters the air to remove any dust particles that 818 00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:39,400 Speaker 1: could potentially get in the way. Because remember, the elements 819 00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,960 Speaker 1: on a hard disk drive platter are microscopic in nature 820 00:45:43,400 --> 00:45:49,040 Speaker 1: beyond microscopic, and a single dust moat is enormous in comparison. 821 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:54,120 Speaker 1: So in these environments, engineers wearing clean suits or bunny 822 00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:57,520 Speaker 1: suits sometimes they're called. These are the white suits that 823 00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:01,320 Speaker 1: zip up over a person's normal clothing and keep things 824 00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:04,560 Speaker 1: like like human dust, essentially skin flakes, that kind of 825 00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:09,799 Speaker 1: stuff from polluting the environment. They will take apart these 826 00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:14,719 Speaker 1: old disk drives and attempt to put them together with 827 00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:17,719 Speaker 1: other working elements. So you might remove a platter from 828 00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,120 Speaker 1: an old disk drive and put it into a new 829 00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:23,160 Speaker 1: system to try and retrieve data off of it. And 830 00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:26,000 Speaker 1: like I said, there are a lot of remarkable success 831 00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:28,239 Speaker 1: stories out there, so I'm gonna share just one because 832 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:30,920 Speaker 1: I think it's pretty cool and it's it's indicative of 833 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:35,080 Speaker 1: some of the more extreme cases of data retrieval. There 834 00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:39,160 Speaker 1: was a uh AN incident at Southampton University a few 835 00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:42,839 Speaker 1: years ago. There was a severe fire that damaged computers 836 00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,000 Speaker 1: in a research and development wing. So you had these 837 00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:50,879 Speaker 1: doctoral students PhD students who had been using these computers 838 00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:54,560 Speaker 1: to store their data and to crunch numbers and you know, 839 00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:58,239 Speaker 1: just to work on these projects. So the information on 840 00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:02,880 Speaker 1: those computers represented years of work and potentially millions of 841 00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:07,880 Speaker 1: dollars worth of R and D information. The university had 842 00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:13,279 Speaker 1: this terrible fire and the fire damaged seventy computers in 843 00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:17,040 Speaker 1: this R and D wing, so they contracted a company 844 00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:20,080 Speaker 1: called Kroll on Track to try and get as much 845 00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:22,680 Speaker 1: of the data back as possible from these machines. These 846 00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:25,439 Speaker 1: are computers that some of them had been melted from 847 00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:29,000 Speaker 1: the fire and had suffered fire damage heat damage. Uh 848 00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:32,200 Speaker 1: the ones that didn't suffer direct fire heat damage had 849 00:47:32,200 --> 00:47:36,439 Speaker 1: suffered smoke damage and water damage, So they're talking about 850 00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:43,880 Speaker 1: an extensive amount of trauma that these computers experienced. A 851 00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:47,359 Speaker 1: an engineer named Robert Winter with carl on Track, led 852 00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:50,880 Speaker 1: this effort to salvage as much data as he could 853 00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:54,880 Speaker 1: off of the seventy hard drives that the university had 854 00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:58,279 Speaker 1: given over to him. So the engineers made copies of 855 00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:00,720 Speaker 1: every single hard drive that they were able to, although 856 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,160 Speaker 1: some of them were so damaged by heat it was 857 00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:10,480 Speaker 1: just irrecoverable. These computers ended up giving up about of 858 00:48:10,520 --> 00:48:13,480 Speaker 1: the data they had stored on them, so, in other words, 859 00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:17,359 Speaker 1: they were able to get back the vast majority of 860 00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:19,879 Speaker 1: information stored on these computers even after they had been 861 00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:24,400 Speaker 1: through fire and water and smoke damage. They were subjected 862 00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:26,759 Speaker 1: to some of the worst conditions that a computer can 863 00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:29,960 Speaker 1: endure and still hold information and yet a firm was 864 00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:32,279 Speaker 1: able to get that data off of those computers, which 865 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:35,800 Speaker 1: is both inspiring and if you're concerned with data security, 866 00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:41,480 Speaker 1: a little scary, because if if data retrieval specialists can 867 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:44,280 Speaker 1: get information off a computer that's been in a fire 868 00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:48,319 Speaker 1: and subjected to water damage, you got to go to 869 00:48:48,480 --> 00:48:51,279 Speaker 1: some pretty big extremes in order to take care of 870 00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:54,040 Speaker 1: the information and make sure no one gets access to it. 871 00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:59,680 Speaker 1: And what happens if the computer isn't yours, then what 872 00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:02,279 Speaker 1: you do? Well, I'm going to cover that in a 873 00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,279 Speaker 1: little bit, but first let's take another quick break to 874 00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:17,239 Speaker 1: thank our sponsor. All Right, let's say that you have 875 00:49:17,680 --> 00:49:23,040 Speaker 1: practiced really good data security. You've also practiced backing up 876 00:49:23,120 --> 00:49:25,400 Speaker 1: your computer. You want to make sure that you have 877 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:27,440 Speaker 1: access to information if something should go wrong, so you've 878 00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:31,399 Speaker 1: got to back up for your computer. Uh. If you're 879 00:49:31,520 --> 00:49:35,520 Speaker 1: like most people, I'd say that, at least until fairly recently, 880 00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:38,640 Speaker 1: I'd say that you'd likely use some sort of external 881 00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:41,600 Speaker 1: hard drive, and you're backing up regularly to that, maybe 882 00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:45,160 Speaker 1: once a week or once a month, something like that. Uh, 883 00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:47,759 Speaker 1: maybe you have it set up where it does that 884 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:52,200 Speaker 1: automatically every given amount of time and so you're external 885 00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:56,840 Speaker 1: hard drive represents a continuing timeline of what used to 886 00:49:56,880 --> 00:49:59,680 Speaker 1: be on your computer or still is on your computer 887 00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:01,440 Speaker 1: and some cases, and that means that if you do 888 00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:04,520 Speaker 1: delete something off of your hard drive, you could go 889 00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:07,800 Speaker 1: to your backup and retrieve it in case you realize 890 00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:11,120 Speaker 1: later that that was a bone headed mistake. Let's say 891 00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:13,040 Speaker 1: you're doing that. Now, Let's say that you're going even further. 892 00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:16,080 Speaker 1: Let's say that you're practicing the next step making sure 893 00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:19,399 Speaker 1: you have your data backed up securely, and you're using 894 00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:23,760 Speaker 1: offsite data backups. Now that means that you are saving 895 00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:26,839 Speaker 1: to a machine that's in a different location than your 896 00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:30,960 Speaker 1: primary machine. And the added benefit here is that if 897 00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:35,480 Speaker 1: anything should happen to your physical device, perhaps the building 898 00:50:35,480 --> 00:50:38,040 Speaker 1: that your physical device is in, you still have access 899 00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:41,600 Speaker 1: to the information. I've worked at companies that did this, 900 00:50:41,680 --> 00:50:46,399 Speaker 1: where we paid a data company to run servers that 901 00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:49,920 Speaker 1: we would end up saving our information to. So it 902 00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:53,200 Speaker 1: wasn't so much I mean a get technically it's cloud computing, 903 00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:56,640 Speaker 1: but really it was just a data farm that had 904 00:50:56,760 --> 00:50:59,560 Speaker 1: certain computer says aside just for us, and we would 905 00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:02,880 Speaker 1: save backups every day at the end of the day 906 00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:06,080 Speaker 1: to that particular service, and they were dated, and so 907 00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:09,440 Speaker 1: you would keep a certain number of days on file, 908 00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:12,640 Speaker 1: and then you would replace them with a rolling replacement, 909 00:51:12,880 --> 00:51:16,080 Speaker 1: which meant that if you deleted something or over wrote something, 910 00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:18,319 Speaker 1: and then two weeks later you need the original, you 911 00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:21,040 Speaker 1: could actually still get it. This is good if you 912 00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:23,440 Speaker 1: want to make sure that you know you have access 913 00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:26,480 Speaker 1: to that data even if something happens to that physical location. 914 00:51:26,880 --> 00:51:30,399 Speaker 1: So in the case of that Southampton University fire, if 915 00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:33,120 Speaker 1: they had been using offsite backups, yeah, it would have 916 00:51:33,120 --> 00:51:36,759 Speaker 1: been awful already because you're gonna lose equipment. No one 917 00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:40,120 Speaker 1: wants to do that. That's expensive. But you would still 918 00:51:40,160 --> 00:51:42,800 Speaker 1: have that data in the off site storage. You wouldn't 919 00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:45,759 Speaker 1: have to worry about going through these data retrieval processes 920 00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:49,040 Speaker 1: because you would already have the information there. However, it 921 00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:51,359 Speaker 1: does raise the other question of if you want to 922 00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:56,160 Speaker 1: delete something, how can you be sure that it's really gone? 923 00:51:56,800 --> 00:52:02,160 Speaker 1: How do you delete data everywhere? This is particularly complicated. 924 00:52:02,239 --> 00:52:04,080 Speaker 1: Now we're in a world where we have more and 925 00:52:04,080 --> 00:52:08,279 Speaker 1: more connected devices that are having shared resources. So let 926 00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:12,319 Speaker 1: me give you an example. I am very firmly in 927 00:52:12,440 --> 00:52:18,640 Speaker 1: the Google uh sphere, right, I mean that ecosystem. This 928 00:52:18,719 --> 00:52:22,600 Speaker 1: is not for me to advocate for Google. Other ecosystems 929 00:52:22,719 --> 00:52:26,080 Speaker 1: are just as good, if not better. My wife uses 930 00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:30,800 Speaker 1: the Apple ecosystem, for example. So you're you're firmly embedded 931 00:52:30,800 --> 00:52:33,160 Speaker 1: in one of these ecosystems, and one of the benefits 932 00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:36,120 Speaker 1: is that you have access to a lot of information 933 00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:39,320 Speaker 1: across a multitude of devices. So you might be using 934 00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:43,560 Speaker 1: a cellular device, you might use a WiFi connected device, 935 00:52:43,880 --> 00:52:46,719 Speaker 1: you might be using multiple devices. You might be using tablets, 936 00:52:47,760 --> 00:52:53,440 Speaker 1: hand set cell phone essentially our smartphone, laptops, set top boxes, 937 00:52:53,719 --> 00:52:56,399 Speaker 1: all sorts of things to access different data, which means 938 00:52:56,440 --> 00:52:59,600 Speaker 1: that data has to be freely available across these different 939 00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:04,280 Speaker 1: device is. Sometimes you have instances of that data saved 940 00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:08,000 Speaker 1: on a device for a convenience sake, because if it's 941 00:53:08,000 --> 00:53:10,160 Speaker 1: saved to the local device, you're going to pull it 942 00:53:10,239 --> 00:53:12,359 Speaker 1: up much more quickly than if you have to pull 943 00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:17,960 Speaker 1: that data down from a cloud server every single time. Right, So, 944 00:53:18,160 --> 00:53:21,880 Speaker 1: if you want fast access to your information, then having 945 00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:26,520 Speaker 1: a a temporary version of it saved to the device 946 00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:29,320 Speaker 1: for at least some given amount of time is handy. 947 00:53:29,640 --> 00:53:31,799 Speaker 1: But it also means if you want to delete that information, 948 00:53:32,440 --> 00:53:36,520 Speaker 1: you might have instances of it existing on multiple devices 949 00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:39,680 Speaker 1: until the general command is given to wipe it off 950 00:53:39,680 --> 00:53:44,400 Speaker 1: of all of them. Moreover, there's some server somewhere that 951 00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:47,560 Speaker 1: contained that data, and how can you be sure that 952 00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:51,920 Speaker 1: that data is actually gone. Let's make it even more complicated. 953 00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:55,680 Speaker 1: If you are talking about using a cloud storage service 954 00:53:56,560 --> 00:53:59,480 Speaker 1: so that you can save your information off site, which 955 00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:04,920 Speaker 1: again keeps the information relatively safe at least from physical damage. 956 00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:09,440 Speaker 1: Assuming that the cloud service is also practicing very good security, 957 00:54:09,719 --> 00:54:14,920 Speaker 1: it may be giving it superior data security protection from 958 00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:19,480 Speaker 1: potential hackers or snoopers. Let's say all those things are true, 959 00:54:19,800 --> 00:54:22,440 Speaker 1: how can you be sure when you delete something that 960 00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:25,080 Speaker 1: actually goes off of those servers. And not only that, 961 00:54:25,160 --> 00:54:28,960 Speaker 1: but if you're running a really good cloud service, you're 962 00:54:29,080 --> 00:54:34,279 Speaker 1: using multiple computers to store the same information for redundancy sake. Now, 963 00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:36,399 Speaker 1: this is for the same purpose that you would save 964 00:54:36,520 --> 00:54:39,919 Speaker 1: something off site as a backup, right, except you're talking 965 00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:43,239 Speaker 1: about a cloud service. If I have a document in 966 00:54:43,280 --> 00:54:47,680 Speaker 1: Google Docs and it's saved through my account somewhere at Google, 967 00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:50,240 Speaker 1: in one of their data centers, or maybe in multiple 968 00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:54,640 Speaker 1: data centers, there are computers that have that document saved 969 00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:58,040 Speaker 1: to them, and it's saved on multiple computers. That way, 970 00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:01,440 Speaker 1: if one computer should break down, because they do break down, 971 00:55:02,200 --> 00:55:05,080 Speaker 1: it just happens. I can still get access to my 972 00:55:05,200 --> 00:55:09,560 Speaker 1: document because it exists on backup computers. This is redundancy. 973 00:55:09,680 --> 00:55:13,480 Speaker 1: It is a very important feature in cloud storage. If 974 00:55:13,520 --> 00:55:17,480 Speaker 1: you don't have redundant systems in cloud storage, then should 975 00:55:17,560 --> 00:55:22,080 Speaker 1: something go wrong with one machine at your service, there's 976 00:55:22,080 --> 00:55:24,120 Speaker 1: gonna be a client out there who can't get access 977 00:55:24,160 --> 00:55:26,440 Speaker 1: to their information, and since that's what they're paying you for, 978 00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:29,960 Speaker 1: that's not good business. However, on the flip side of that, 979 00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:32,239 Speaker 1: when you want to delete something now you not not 980 00:55:32,440 --> 00:55:35,120 Speaker 1: You're not only deleting it from your local devices, you 981 00:55:35,160 --> 00:55:40,440 Speaker 1: wanted deleted from every single instance at the cloud storage service. 982 00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:44,800 Speaker 1: How can you guarantee that happens. And here's the answer 983 00:55:44,840 --> 00:55:49,520 Speaker 1: to that question. You can't. I mean, unless you're able 984 00:55:49,560 --> 00:55:53,719 Speaker 1: to actually physically visit the all the data centers for 985 00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:55,920 Speaker 1: whichever service you're using, and if you're using one of 986 00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:59,560 Speaker 1: the big ones like Amazon or Google, that's a lot 987 00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:02,720 Speaker 1: of data centers across a lot of different locations around 988 00:56:02,760 --> 00:56:06,440 Speaker 1: the world. Unless you can do that yourself, you cannot 989 00:56:06,480 --> 00:56:10,560 Speaker 1: be absolutely certain that the files you've asked to be deleted, 990 00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:13,080 Speaker 1: are really really gone? Now, these companies are going to 991 00:56:13,160 --> 00:56:16,000 Speaker 1: tell you if you send us a request to delete, 992 00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:19,160 Speaker 1: we delete, and you will not have access to that 993 00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:22,920 Speaker 1: file anymore. Don't even bother play in coming to us saying, oh, 994 00:56:23,520 --> 00:56:27,160 Speaker 1: I did not mean to delete that because it is gone. Well, 995 00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:29,200 Speaker 1: of course the companies are going to have to say that, 996 00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:32,600 Speaker 1: because otherwise it would be to suggest that when I 997 00:56:32,640 --> 00:56:35,440 Speaker 1: delete something from their servers, they don't actually delete it, 998 00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:39,600 Speaker 1: and that would be bad business. But we can't be 999 00:56:39,680 --> 00:56:43,320 Speaker 1: sure that when they say they've deleted something that's actually gone. 1000 00:56:43,719 --> 00:56:47,760 Speaker 1: What does happen is they essentially sever the connection between 1001 00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:52,040 Speaker 1: the customer and that particular information. So if I delete 1002 00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:56,200 Speaker 1: a document out of my Google Docs, let's say, then 1003 00:56:56,280 --> 00:56:58,880 Speaker 1: what Google is going to do is essentially cut off 1004 00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:03,880 Speaker 1: the method that of getting to that document from my account. 1005 00:57:05,040 --> 00:57:07,480 Speaker 1: That means that I no longer have a pathway to 1006 00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:10,680 Speaker 1: that document, but I can't be certain that it means 1007 00:57:10,719 --> 00:57:14,360 Speaker 1: the document itself is gone. It may still exist on 1008 00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:18,960 Speaker 1: multiple computers under Google's domain. I just can't get to it, 1009 00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:22,680 Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean it's actually deleted. Now a lot 1010 00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:26,840 Speaker 1: of these cloud services will also offer encryption services or 1011 00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:30,800 Speaker 1: even include that as part of the storage system, meaning 1012 00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:33,800 Speaker 1: that your data is encrypted and the only way to 1013 00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:36,960 Speaker 1: get to it is to have the decryption key so 1014 00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:41,600 Speaker 1: that you can actually read that that information. That's a 1015 00:57:41,600 --> 00:57:44,200 Speaker 1: little more useful because if I delete a file and 1016 00:57:44,240 --> 00:57:46,920 Speaker 1: they cut off the pathway between me and that file, 1017 00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:50,920 Speaker 1: even if it still exists on their computers, it's encrypted, 1018 00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:54,400 Speaker 1: so it's not like anyone's reading it or getting access 1019 00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:56,720 Speaker 1: to it because they don't have the decryption key. I 1020 00:57:56,840 --> 00:58:00,320 Speaker 1: have it, So that's a little bit better. And in fact, 1021 00:58:00,800 --> 00:58:04,040 Speaker 1: it's the solution that the I E E E, the 1022 00:58:04,120 --> 00:58:06,920 Speaker 1: I triple E, or as Chris Palette and I always 1023 00:58:06,960 --> 00:58:09,360 Speaker 1: used to say back in the old days of tech stuff, 1024 00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:15,120 Speaker 1: I e. They recommend using encryption for all cloud services. 1025 00:58:15,120 --> 00:58:18,760 Speaker 1: In fact, they're specific recommendation is using what they called 1026 00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:23,880 Speaker 1: recursively encrypted red black key tree or RURK r E 1027 00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:28,200 Speaker 1: E R E r K, which is a complicated method 1028 00:58:28,200 --> 00:58:30,280 Speaker 1: of making sure that off site data is meaningless to 1029 00:58:30,320 --> 00:58:33,919 Speaker 1: anyone but the person who actually owns data or has 1030 00:58:34,240 --> 00:58:37,200 Speaker 1: the legitimate access to that data. Now, the reason why 1031 00:58:37,240 --> 00:58:40,760 Speaker 1: this is a relevant question is because it became clear 1032 00:58:41,120 --> 00:58:44,880 Speaker 1: that there are some companies that had purported to have 1033 00:58:45,040 --> 00:58:50,000 Speaker 1: only temporary ownership of data or temporary stewardship if you prefer, 1034 00:58:50,160 --> 00:58:52,320 Speaker 1: of data, and it turned out that it was less 1035 00:58:52,360 --> 00:58:58,680 Speaker 1: temporary than had previously been suspected. So back in for example, 1036 00:58:59,120 --> 00:59:02,120 Speaker 1: there was a story of about Snapchat and about how 1037 00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:05,840 Speaker 1: the service was keeping photos rather than deleting them after 1038 00:59:05,880 --> 00:59:09,520 Speaker 1: a said amount of time. So the general thought was 1039 00:59:09,560 --> 00:59:12,240 Speaker 1: that if you took a photo with Snapchat and then 1040 00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:14,840 Speaker 1: you shared it with people, it would only exist for 1041 00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:18,440 Speaker 1: maybe twenty four hours and then it was gone permanently. 1042 00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:23,160 Speaker 1: But then it turned out that the story wasn't entirely true. Now, 1043 00:59:24,120 --> 00:59:28,600 Speaker 1: the two thousand thirteen story didn't suggest that Snapchat was 1044 00:59:28,720 --> 00:59:32,360 Speaker 1: actually keeping these copies on their servers. Rather, what it 1045 00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:35,040 Speaker 1: was saying was that the device you were using to 1046 00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:39,200 Speaker 1: access Snapchat and to take photos of yourself would hold 1047 00:59:39,240 --> 00:59:43,080 Speaker 1: onto those pictures for a while at least, that they 1048 00:59:43,120 --> 00:59:44,840 Speaker 1: were doing it in a way where they were using 1049 00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:48,160 Speaker 1: a file extension that made it difficult to see that 1050 00:59:48,240 --> 00:59:50,280 Speaker 1: those files still existed on the device. But if you 1051 00:59:50,360 --> 00:59:51,919 Speaker 1: knew what you were looking for, and if you used 1052 00:59:51,920 --> 00:59:54,440 Speaker 1: a little bit of tech forensics work, you could actually 1053 00:59:54,480 --> 00:59:57,480 Speaker 1: find the folder and the photos that you had been 1054 00:59:58,760 --> 01:00:02,560 Speaker 1: taking all that time on Snapchat, even though it sounded 1055 01:00:02,600 --> 01:00:05,120 Speaker 1: like the app was going to delete the photo from 1056 01:00:05,120 --> 01:00:08,240 Speaker 1: your device after a given amount of time, So it 1057 01:00:08,320 --> 01:00:10,840 Speaker 1: turned out that it wasn't as gone as you thought 1058 01:00:10,880 --> 01:00:13,320 Speaker 1: it was. Now, granted, that's on a local device, right, 1059 01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:16,000 Speaker 1: so it only really matters if someone else gets hold 1060 01:00:16,160 --> 01:00:20,160 Speaker 1: of your phone, let's say, and has access to it 1061 01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:23,200 Speaker 1: and is able to find that folder and find those 1062 01:00:23,240 --> 01:00:26,360 Speaker 1: image files which have been renamed, thus making them more 1063 01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:28,680 Speaker 1: difficult to find. But if they knew how to do that, 1064 01:00:28,720 --> 01:00:31,000 Speaker 1: they could totally see all those images that you were 1065 01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:33,800 Speaker 1: being taking on Snapchat and sitting off. So all those 1066 01:00:33,840 --> 01:00:37,320 Speaker 1: post workout selfies that I do, but I mean, come on, 1067 01:00:37,720 --> 01:00:42,120 Speaker 1: they're working hard. So those still existed on the phones. 1068 01:00:42,200 --> 01:00:44,040 Speaker 1: That was the story that broke in two thousand thirteen. 1069 01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:47,800 Speaker 1: As for the servers, they do not hold onto user 1070 01:00:47,920 --> 01:00:51,120 Speaker 1: data forever, so they don't hold onto those photos and 1071 01:00:51,160 --> 01:00:56,640 Speaker 1: other snaps indefinitely, but they might hold on to it 1072 01:00:56,720 --> 01:00:59,840 Speaker 1: longer than you expected them to, up to thirty days 1073 01:01:00,120 --> 01:01:05,800 Speaker 1: after when you shared the snap. So technically what they'll 1074 01:01:05,840 --> 01:01:09,760 Speaker 1: do is they'll delete files once the system detects that 1075 01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:14,080 Speaker 1: all the recipients of a snap have viewed it. So 1076 01:01:14,160 --> 01:01:16,400 Speaker 1: let's say that you've you're sharing something just to your 1077 01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:21,040 Speaker 1: Snapchat followers. That's it. It's not available to anyone else. 1078 01:01:21,800 --> 01:01:25,720 Speaker 1: You send this out and the system detects that every 1079 01:01:25,720 --> 01:01:28,240 Speaker 1: single one of your Snapchat followers has had a chance 1080 01:01:28,280 --> 01:01:30,920 Speaker 1: to look at that snap has opened it at some point. 1081 01:01:31,280 --> 01:01:34,600 Speaker 1: It will then mark that snap for deletion, but if 1082 01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:37,960 Speaker 1: not everyone has done it, it will keep that snap 1083 01:01:38,000 --> 01:01:40,880 Speaker 1: active for up to thirty days after it was taken 1084 01:01:41,240 --> 01:01:43,880 Speaker 1: in order to give people who follow you the chance 1085 01:01:43,920 --> 01:01:46,800 Speaker 1: to see it, which I don't think is a bad 1086 01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:50,360 Speaker 1: thing necessarily. It's just something that might not easily be 1087 01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:54,160 Speaker 1: understood by a lot of people who use Snapchat, who 1088 01:01:54,240 --> 01:01:58,080 Speaker 1: think this is a very momentary type of media and 1089 01:01:58,800 --> 01:02:02,080 Speaker 1: moments after I share it it's gone. That's not the case. 1090 01:02:02,200 --> 01:02:04,040 Speaker 1: It can stick around on those servers for up to 1091 01:02:04,080 --> 01:02:08,160 Speaker 1: a month later. I don't know that that's necessarily a 1092 01:02:08,160 --> 01:02:10,440 Speaker 1: deal breaker, but it is something to keep in mind. 1093 01:02:10,560 --> 01:02:12,520 Speaker 1: And it's those kind of stories that got people to 1094 01:02:12,560 --> 01:02:16,120 Speaker 1: asking questions about cloud storage. If I decided to delete 1095 01:02:16,120 --> 01:02:20,080 Speaker 1: something off of my cloud storage account, how can I 1096 01:02:20,120 --> 01:02:23,000 Speaker 1: be sure it's really gone? And again, the answer is 1097 01:02:23,040 --> 01:02:27,320 Speaker 1: he can't be certain, so that's kind of buyer beware. 1098 01:02:27,600 --> 01:02:31,200 Speaker 1: I suppose that if you're going to use cloud storage, 1099 01:02:31,200 --> 01:02:34,040 Speaker 1: which I think is a valuable service, don't get me wrong, 1100 01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:37,560 Speaker 1: you do so knowing that there is the potential that 1101 01:02:37,560 --> 01:02:40,520 Speaker 1: that information is going to be out there forever, h 1102 01:02:41,040 --> 01:02:44,560 Speaker 1: on those servers, or at least on a machine somewhere. 1103 01:02:45,200 --> 01:02:47,640 Speaker 1: You have to accept that that is a possibility. It's 1104 01:02:47,640 --> 01:02:51,320 Speaker 1: not necessarily something that is definitely gonna happen, but it's 1105 01:02:51,440 --> 01:02:54,480 Speaker 1: it's definitely possible. Let's say that you have saved something 1106 01:02:54,520 --> 01:02:57,560 Speaker 1: to your account and then they decided to take a 1107 01:02:57,720 --> 01:03:02,120 Speaker 1: server offline because they need to replace it in their 1108 01:03:02,840 --> 01:03:06,720 Speaker 1: array of servers, and it happens to have a copy 1109 01:03:06,800 --> 01:03:10,000 Speaker 1: of that information you saved. Then you choose to delete 1110 01:03:10,040 --> 01:03:12,600 Speaker 1: it from your account, but that particular machine has been 1111 01:03:12,600 --> 01:03:16,960 Speaker 1: disconnected from the overall service, an instance of your information 1112 01:03:17,000 --> 01:03:19,439 Speaker 1: may still be on that machine. Now, granted, if it's 1113 01:03:19,480 --> 01:03:23,680 Speaker 1: a legitimate business, what they they should do is wipe 1114 01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:28,400 Speaker 1: that machine completely and and overwrite all the information on 1115 01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:31,600 Speaker 1: it so that no files on it could possibly ever 1116 01:03:31,680 --> 01:03:35,439 Speaker 1: be accessed. But it's still want something to worry about, 1117 01:03:35,480 --> 01:03:38,480 Speaker 1: because it's outside of your control. If you're using cloud 1118 01:03:38,480 --> 01:03:43,200 Speaker 1: storage responsibly and you are practicing good data security in general, 1119 01:03:43,640 --> 01:03:47,080 Speaker 1: I don't see any reason why you should stop relying 1120 01:03:47,120 --> 01:03:50,400 Speaker 1: on it, especially if you're using encryption. I think it's 1121 01:03:50,440 --> 01:03:52,720 Speaker 1: a valuable thing to use, but it's also good to 1122 01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:56,400 Speaker 1: know it's limitations and the potential problems you could encounter 1123 01:03:57,080 --> 01:04:00,240 Speaker 1: uh in in a worse case scenario situation. And if 1124 01:04:00,240 --> 01:04:03,480 Speaker 1: that worst case scenario isn't that bad for you, there's 1125 01:04:03,480 --> 01:04:07,360 Speaker 1: no problem. If you want to save something that is 1126 01:04:07,560 --> 01:04:12,040 Speaker 1: more sensitive information, maybe they are trade secrets, something that 1127 01:04:12,120 --> 01:04:14,400 Speaker 1: you do not want to get out to the general public. 1128 01:04:15,200 --> 01:04:18,360 Speaker 1: Maybe don't save it on cloud storage. Maybe save it 1129 01:04:18,360 --> 01:04:23,160 Speaker 1: on local storage. Have an off site but secured data 1130 01:04:23,240 --> 01:04:26,040 Speaker 1: server that's just yours. No one else is sharing it. 1131 01:04:26,480 --> 01:04:29,200 Speaker 1: Save it to there too for a backup. It's a 1132 01:04:29,200 --> 01:04:32,480 Speaker 1: lot of extra work, but it's more of a guarantee 1133 01:04:32,640 --> 01:04:37,520 Speaker 1: that your sensitive information will not leave your control, and 1134 01:04:37,640 --> 01:04:41,280 Speaker 1: ultimately that's the most important thing in this particular discussion. 1135 01:04:41,720 --> 01:04:45,960 Speaker 1: If you've shared it online, if you've posted some information 1136 01:04:46,640 --> 01:04:51,960 Speaker 1: on the internet, it's out there forever. Just accept that 1137 01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:57,000 Speaker 1: because there's not any easy way to remove something that's 1138 01:04:57,040 --> 01:04:59,880 Speaker 1: been posted to the Internet. People on Twitter know this. 1139 01:05:00,240 --> 01:05:02,560 Speaker 1: People who have tweeted things that they wish they hadn't 1140 01:05:02,600 --> 01:05:05,240 Speaker 1: and had gone back to delete those tweets, they already know. 1141 01:05:06,440 --> 01:05:08,600 Speaker 1: There's no such thing as deleting it off the Internet. 1142 01:05:08,640 --> 01:05:11,400 Speaker 1: It exists somewhere else already, someone has already saved a 1143 01:05:11,440 --> 01:05:14,840 Speaker 1: copy of it, and it is perpetuating out there for 1144 01:05:14,880 --> 01:05:20,320 Speaker 1: the rest of all of the Internet's existence. So if 1145 01:05:20,400 --> 01:05:25,760 Speaker 1: you think it's sensitive information, don't post it on the Internet. 1146 01:05:26,440 --> 01:05:30,960 Speaker 1: That seems like it's incredibly basic information, and yet people 1147 01:05:30,960 --> 01:05:34,600 Speaker 1: still do it. So I'm gonna say it here just 1148 01:05:35,040 --> 01:05:38,040 Speaker 1: in case any of you were thinking, Hey, I think 1149 01:05:38,080 --> 01:05:40,880 Speaker 1: I should post my social Security number on Facebook. Don't 1150 01:05:40,920 --> 01:05:44,360 Speaker 1: do that. Don't do it. All Right, that wraps up 1151 01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:49,919 Speaker 1: this discussion about data deletion data retrieval. There's a lot 1152 01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:52,120 Speaker 1: more of the details I could go into, but it 1153 01:05:52,160 --> 01:05:56,280 Speaker 1: gets really technical, and it gets into file systems and 1154 01:05:56,480 --> 01:06:00,320 Speaker 1: file trees and all these other concepts that are hoardent, 1155 01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:04,200 Speaker 1: but they're also difficult to explain in an audio format, 1156 01:06:04,240 --> 01:06:06,960 Speaker 1: and frankly, it gets into greater detail than most of 1157 01:06:07,000 --> 01:06:12,160 Speaker 1: you require. I encourage you to practice good habits and 1158 01:06:12,320 --> 01:06:15,840 Speaker 1: if you have suggestions for future topics I should cover 1159 01:06:15,960 --> 01:06:18,400 Speaker 1: here on tech Stuff, send me a message let me 1160 01:06:18,440 --> 01:06:21,040 Speaker 1: know about them. The email address you should use is 1161 01:06:21,080 --> 01:06:24,360 Speaker 1: tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or you 1162 01:06:24,360 --> 01:06:26,720 Speaker 1: can drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook. The 1163 01:06:26,720 --> 01:06:28,720 Speaker 1: handle for both of those is tech stuff hs W. 1164 01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:31,600 Speaker 1: Remember we've got an Instagram account now, so you can 1165 01:06:31,840 --> 01:06:34,640 Speaker 1: follow that and get all the cool updates that Crystal 1166 01:06:34,720 --> 01:06:37,440 Speaker 1: keeps posting there. And if you want to watch me 1167 01:06:37,560 --> 01:06:40,440 Speaker 1: live on Wednesdays and Fridays, I record the show and 1168 01:06:40,520 --> 01:06:43,680 Speaker 1: I stream it on twitch dot tv slash tech Stuff. 1169 01:06:43,920 --> 01:06:45,840 Speaker 1: If you go there, you'll see what the schedule is 1170 01:06:46,440 --> 01:06:50,800 Speaker 1: Wednesdays at four pm Eastern and Friday's at two third 1171 01:06:50,960 --> 01:06:53,080 Speaker 1: p m Eastern. Hope to see you there. We got 1172 01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:56,000 Speaker 1: a chat room. You can join in and make jokes 1173 01:06:56,040 --> 01:06:59,320 Speaker 1: and point out all the factual errors I I spout out, no, 1174 01:06:59,520 --> 01:07:01,600 Speaker 1: please don't do that. Just be really supportive and nice 1175 01:07:01,640 --> 01:07:04,760 Speaker 1: because I my ego is fragile. And I also love 1176 01:07:04,800 --> 01:07:07,040 Speaker 1: to chat with you guys whenever I'm in a break 1177 01:07:07,240 --> 01:07:11,000 Speaker 1: between recording sections, So jump in there. I'd love to 1178 01:07:11,040 --> 01:07:14,080 Speaker 1: see you there, and I'll talk to you again really 1179 01:07:14,160 --> 01:07:22,520 Speaker 1: soon for more on this and bathands of other topics 1180 01:07:22,560 --> 01:07:33,880 Speaker 1: because a house stuff works dot Com