Bad computer, bad bad!

[Georgia_Maine]

I'm not sure where to put this, so if this isn't the right place please move it for me. I know that there are a lot of us ladies still not out to friends and family. We need to keep our fem persona private for many reasons. Still a lot of us like to take photos enfem. I know I do. It helps me see my progress on this journey. I also use photo post-processing software to adjust for minor changes, like re-sizing, color shifts, contrast, and brightness. Anyone who thinks they're safe by storing photos on a separate hard drive or even a flash drive might want to read what I discovered recently.

First, I'm careful with my photos. I remove them to a drive separate from my computer's hard drive. I then try to remove any trace from the computer and its filing system, too. I even go so far as doing a search of all of the pictures on my computer every once in a while. If I find any of them I just delete them. I thought I was pretty thorough. Wrong. My post-processing software (Photoshop Elements) has an organizer system that is used to organize photos into groups. It's really helpful for anyone who wants to catalog their photos by person, place, etc. I never really needed to use it before. I did yesterday. I pulled up the organizer subroutine - and out pops seemingly EVERY photo ever placed on the computer, even those that were deleted from my computer hard drive! Thumbnails of dozens of photos of Gigi were there, even though they'd been removed from the computer months ago!:eek: I spent about half an hour removing the incriminating photos. If you use a photo post-processer that has an organizer program, you might want to open it up and see who appears. Now I'm wondering what other places hide photos of Gigi in my computer.

Gigi

[Candice Mae]

I keep everything on an external hard drive, so if I'm not using it unplug it and there's no trace. I keep the hard drive in my underwear drawer, if they see my bras and panties might as well show them why I have them in there.

[Karren H]

I stopped contaminating family and work computers years and years ago.... Karren has her own dedicated notebook.... external drive... flash drives... camera and smart phone....

[roxielives]

It's what I always say. Live by the computer.....die by the computer. If its put in your computer, it stays in your computer. As for the pics you want to keep, a flash drive is nice unless someone gets a hold of it or it gets lost. I store all of my stuff online at dropbox. When I take a pic with my phone it is automatically uploaded to the site.

[Nadine Spirit]

As most of you know, I hide nothing from my wife. But with that being said, I am surprised at how many of you share a "family" computer, as both my wife and I have our own: phones, iPads, and laptops. I could have whatever I want on my laptop, as it is mine and nobody else ever uses it. Hmm... problem solved, oh yeah, that's right I don't have this problem in the first place.

[Beverley Sims]

Nadine,
It is not a problem for me either, but I have to be a fastidious housekeeper. :)

[nethiker55]

That is the problem with computers and the internet. NOTHING ever is DELETED it is simply hidden and easily retrievable for any that knows how. The only way to truely get rid of something on a computer is to format the hard drive.

[reb.femme]

A very very quick Google search came up with these solutions to thumbnails, but do your own home work to check they work.

Many photo editing programmes maintain there own folder of imported items so this can lead to a fair amount of checking to ensure you continue to remain undetected.

As Karren said, a separate life is good if you need to remain incognito. Luckily, I don't have that problem at home as I'm out to my immediate family.

The MAC does have a secure delete, so in this respect is a lot better than a PC. Some would say in all respects, but I like both formats.

Win 7
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10797-thumbnail-cache-clear-reset.html

XP/Vista
http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-the-Thumbnail-Cache-in-Windows

Rebecca

[Nadine Spirit]

The only way to truely get rid of something on a computer is to format the hard drive.

Not true. You can unformat a hard drive and recover data from it.

[Melissa_59]

For things like that, I have an inexpensive separate laptop running Linux with disk encryption and one very long encryption key to the filesystem - good luck hacking it.

[Melissa_59]

Not true. You can unformat a hard drive and recover data from it.

DBAN - Darik's Boot And Nuke. When that's done, it would take "heroic efforts in a lab" to recover the data.

[Talisker]

I keep everything on an external hard drive, so if I'm not using it unplug it and there's no trace. I keep the hard drive in my underwear drawer, if they see my bras and panties might as well show them why I have them in there.

Sounds like a great plan.

[sherri]

Interesting. I've used Photoshop for decades but never tried Elements. I've never seen an app that created actual copies of photos or documents -- except for back-up apps, of course. But I can tell you it requires a great deal of due diligence and effort to totally remove tell-tale traces of online activity from a computer. Temp files, registry entries, etc etc, that stick around even after you delete histories etc, it's unbelievable.

[AprilMayy<3]

I don't really "hide" my pictures honestly. I still live with my family of 6, and my brother has his computer right next to mine. My April folder is named just that, "April". Though it is in another folder that has a bunch of other folders with others girls in it, maybe that hides it enough. But if someone were to really want to snoop on my computer to find something out about me and they find that, then congratulations they found out my secret, but they have to snoop pretty good to even think about searching through a folder labeled "April" where there are other folders with other girls' names on it haha.

[larry]

I went on a business trip and as I was leaving one of my adult daughters asked if she could use my computer for her husband to look up something. I said no there are things I would not like to share on there. The very next night when I called home she was there and said "Dad what is the keyboard lock on your computer?" Hehe

[sherri]

I don't really "hide" my pictures honestly. I still live with my family of 6, and my brother has his computer right next to mine. My April folder is named just that, "April". Though it is in another folder that has a bunch of other folders with others girls in it, maybe that hides it enough. But if someone were to really want to snoop on my computer to find something out about me and they find that, then congratulations they found out my secret, but they have to snoop pretty good to even think about searching through a folder labeled "April" where there are other folders with other girls' names on it haha.I could prolly bust you in about 2 minutes. There are ways, gurl. :-)

[ChristinaK]

Have not taken any pics of myself just because of that reason. Not super computer savvy and I could just see my wife or daughter thinking, "hmmm, that really ugly woman looks very familiar to me. Ahhh, OMG!" That is NOT how I want my secret life to go down... Wish I could share pics with you all, but too scared!

[Andrea Chenowith]

I can't speak to Elements with any authority, but I know that Adobe Bridge (works with Photoshop) keeps a local thumbnail cache of every image in every folder you've ever previewed in the software. You can clear it, though -- Preferences > Cache > Purge. Elements may have something similar.

[Rob]

When a computer deletes a file it basically just deletes the part that lets the operating system see the file, all the data is technically still there until overwritten. To make it more or less gone you need to go and write over the data with new data. There are applications that can help you with that. Just do a quick Google search on "free software to erase deleted files" or "free file shredding software" it brings up a few how-to guides and some program options.

I don't know Photoshop Elements but you should be able to clear out the cache if you know where to look. It MIGHT be in File > Manage Catalogs > ... again i don't have it so hard to say for sure, i just did a quick google search.

If you download something just be careful you don't pick up any malware. If you don't have an antivirus software, try Microsoft Security Essentials (Free from Microsoft, i use it because it just works, no effort, and it doesn't lag my systems).



*GEEK RANT OFF*

[Jilmac]

Call me old school but I'm still partial to film. With film I can take as many pix as I want, keep them in a safe place, and if I destroy them, they're gone forever. I'm very cautious about what I post on my computer for several reasons, as you mentioned Georgia, pictures remain on the hard drive forever, also if my computer crashes, (and it has several times), I lose everything and have to start over because I'm a computer dummy and don't know how to recover lost files. So for me, film is the way to go. Yes I have a digital camera but still use my two 35mm and if Polaroid film was still available I'd be using that too.

[Julia Red]

I don't use Photoshop but I think this is a very useful advice. I'll be sure to keep this in mind if I ever start to use it.

I'm outed to my wife and daughter but I don't want them to see all my pictures, and I worry about any unexpected event, like getting my computer stolen, so I use a software called TrueCrypt, that creates a virtual hard drive that's password protected. If you don't launch the program and enter the correct password the virtual hard drive is not even shown.

[Deedee Skyblue]

Not true. You can unformat a hard drive and recover data from it.

Formatting may not be the best solution for ultimate security. Something that fills every memory bit with 0 and then fills every bit with 1 and THEN formats it would be better. Most people don't need that level of security - formatting the hard disk is probably adequate. Unless you think somebody really really really wants to see what's on your disk.

I use Picasa to do some editing. Picasa makes a safe copy of every picture after you edit one and before you save it. And it puts them into safe folders. So you can't just erase the folders where YOU save your pictures - you have to erase the folders where Picasa saves the safe copies.


Deedee

[Tracy Hazel Lee]

Not true. You can unformat a hard drive and recover data from it.
When most people format a hard disk, they opt for the 'quick' format, which actually does nothing. All it does is wipe out the file table, and label all areas of the drive 'okay to use'. HOWEVER, if you perform a 'slow' format, which means, write a '0' in EVERY sector of the drive, start to finish, there is NO recovery from that. That data is physically gone.