It’s always a good idea to scan flash drive to the virus when you use it on your PC. Today we look at how to use Microsoft Security Essentials for the USB scanner via the AutoPlay dialog box.

If you have not already done so, download and install Microsoft Security Essentials

Next download the “mseautoplay.zip / em> (link below). Unzip the file to view its contents. Continue Reading ->

Deleting files or quickly formatting a drive isn’t enough for sensitive personal information. We’ll show you how to get rid of it for good using a Ubuntu Live CD.

When you delete a file in Windows, Ubuntu, or any other operating system, it doesn’t actually destroy the data stored on your hard drive, it just marks that data as “deleted.” If you overwrite it later, then that data is generally unrecoverable, but if the operating system don’t happen to overwrite it, then your data is still stored on your hard drive, recoverable by anyone who has the right software.

By securely delete files or entire hard drives, your data will be gone for good.

Note: Modern hard drives are extremely sophisticated, as are the experts who recover data for a living. There is no guarantee that the methods covered in this article will make your data completely unrecoverable; however, they will make your data unrecoverable to the majority of recovery methods, and all methods that are readily available to the general public.

Shred individual files

Most of the data stored on your hard drive is harmless, and doesn’t reveal anything about you. If there are just a few files that you know you don’t want someone else to see, then the easiest way to get rid of them is a built-in Linux utility called shred. Continue Reading ->