Joined Jul 2009
L4: Apprentice
Forum Thread
Any data stored on computer when transferring files from one usb drive to another?
April 27, 2023 at
01:42 PM
When plugging in 2 usb flash drives into a windows 10 computer and transferring files (such as photos, documents, etc.) from flash drive A to flash drive B, are any of the files or information about them stored on the windows 10 computer's internal drive or memory (such as cache)?
If so, is there a way to clear it? thanks to any who can provide some information on this.
If so, is there a way to clear it? thanks to any who can provide some information on this.
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Are you concerned about a person or someone with special skills?
if the drive is s spinner it is pretty easy lots of tools, for an SSD more difficult I would create a bootable version of Linux or windows and use the computer with no hard drives attached problem solved
https://www.hirensbootc
or
https://www.hirensbootc
https://whatsoftware.co
If any knows any more on this topic, please feel free to post.
Like I said if you are concerned create a boot disk and disconnect your hard drive copy the files then you will know that no one can find anything as you did not use a hard drive!
If any knows any more on this topic, please feel free to post.
Searching the web, I found this information:
"No, it would not. Parts of the file may be cached in memory, but extracting those parts and sorting out which parts are missing would be either incredibly difficult or impossible."
and a follow up
"I think it should go without saying, but it is perhaps worth noting that even if parts of those files are in memory, they will not stay there permanently. Things like rebooting the computer or having a high utilization of memory occurring will cause those pieces to disappear relatively quickly."
Thanks to all for your responses.
Searching the web, I found this information:
"No, it would not. Parts of the file may be cached in memory, but extracting those parts and sorting out which parts are missing would be either incredibly difficult or impossible."
and a follow up
"I think it should go without saying, but it is perhaps worth noting that even if parts of those files are in memory, they will not stay there permanently. Things like rebooting the computer or having a high utilization of memory occurring will cause those pieces to disappear relatively quickly."
Thanks to all for your responses.
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If so, is there a way to clear it? thanks to any who can provide some information on this.
Definitely data being copied in that manner would be stored temporarily in main memory. I am not sure how to predict how likely it is that the data is written to a paging file. You should assume it would be. I do not know how to wipe a paging file clean. Since it is not clear how important this is I won't attempt to speculate. For high-security purposes there are special operating systems and procedures. For example a Tivo protects the digital rights of videos by storing most of its data encrypted on the hard drive and uses a special processor that understands the encryption so that any attempt to capture the data is ineffective. Depending on level of security, you might not need special hardware but you might need to utilize higher protection form malware. In other words, it depends.
The following is likely not relevant. Nearly half a century ago I was in the US Army and working in the Pentagon. Occasionally I had to transport disk platters (about two feet in diameter and half a foot high) to a Naval facility to get the platters degaussed, using big magnets, to wipe out all the data.