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Anyone know a computer forensics person to asks if someone wipes important info. off the internet (Original Post) midnight Apr 2013 OP
Need...more...input... TroglodyteScholar Apr 2013 #1
I need to recover the search history of a work computer... I have been told it is wiped clean midnight Apr 2013 #3
Read up on the index.dat file TroglodyteScholar Apr 2013 #5
Thanks for the two links... midnight Apr 2013 #6
From the limited amount of information you give RoccoR5955 Apr 2013 #2
Do you know the name of a software that could make available a search history on a particular midnight Apr 2013 #4
I don't know that, but RoccoR5955 Apr 2013 #7
I only know the a specific time period... Would that cut down on the time? Thank you for your midnight Apr 2013 #8
Not at all RoccoR5955 Apr 2013 #9

midnight

(26,624 posts)
3. I need to recover the search history of a work computer... I have been told it is wiped clean
Sun Apr 14, 2013, 02:23 PM
Apr 2013

every twenty days and no longer exists.... However years ago, it was discussed that once a search is made that history lasts.... I'm wondering if search histories are not really lost or removed but retrieved via another method not made available for some other reasons?

TroglodyteScholar

(5,477 posts)
5. Read up on the index.dat file
Sun Apr 14, 2013, 09:20 PM
Apr 2013

You might want to see if the index.dat file was left intact. Read here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index.dat

This tool may be helpful if you don't mind going into world of the command prompt...

http://www.tzworks.net/prototype_page.php?proto_id=6

 

RoccoR5955

(12,471 posts)
2. From the limited amount of information you give
Sun Apr 14, 2013, 01:38 PM
Apr 2013

The only way would be a bit by bit scan of the computer.
You should remember that files are not really deleted on a computer, until the storage (aka hard drive) is out of room. They are then overwritten.
Typically, when you delete a file, the file is marked as deleted, and eligible to be overwritten, if needed, on that part of the storage.
There is software that can read the raw data on a storage device, and this is what is necessary if one is to read a file that is "deleted."

midnight

(26,624 posts)
4. Do you know the name of a software that could make available a search history on a particular
Sun Apr 14, 2013, 02:25 PM
Apr 2013

computer a company is claiming was removed via their twenty day policy? Thanks...

 

RoccoR5955

(12,471 posts)
7. I don't know that, but
Mon Apr 15, 2013, 11:38 AM
Apr 2013

There is a piece of software called "Disk Investigator," which will allow you to do a sector by sector read of the hard drive.
It is a very painstaking task to find data, if you don't know EXACTLY what you are looking for. You can page through the millions, even billions of bytes on the HDD to see the data, but it will take a LONG time.
http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html
There's a link in case you are curious.
I do not know the method that such a software company can use, but they may replace the data with zeros and ones, if they truly seek to remove all traces of the data.

midnight

(26,624 posts)
8. I only know the a specific time period... Would that cut down on the time? Thank you for your
Mon Apr 15, 2013, 10:28 PM
Apr 2013

info..

 

RoccoR5955

(12,471 posts)
9. Not at all
Tue Apr 16, 2013, 12:54 PM
Apr 2013

What would help, would be the specific areas of the disk, or using the search function, if one is built in, some word that is unique to the files, but I am guessing.

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