Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys.
Sooner or later we all changing our equipment and sometimes people are selling their used PCs or smartphones. In this case if you stored your private key on your hard drive it will be possible to restore it if you did not deleted it properly.
For PC I use CCleaner to permanently delete my files but the whole cleaning should take a huge amount of time. Anyone knows faster way to delete files?
I am also interested to find similar program to permanently delete files from my android smartphone but still can't find a proper tool. I will appreciate any advice.

Unless you use whole disk encryption (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_encryption#Full_disk_encryption), which is supported out of the box by all major modern operating systems without the need for third-party utilities or funky bootloaders. There's no excuse for leaving data unencrypted in this day and age.

Hmm, seems nice.
As I understand it might encrypt not only the entire disc but also some separate files.

So in this case is there any chance to restore deleted encrypted files?
And what should I do with files that already were deleted?

P.S. I also need the same kind of app for my android and will appreciate your advice.

There's nothing better than a CCleaner

My question to you is, Why bother? Now that you have learned to make encrypted partitions from now on, you should just discard all your old wallets, make new ones and transfer everything there.

CCleaner and such are a pure waste of time, you should have never used windows in the first place.
And don't try those things in anything that is not a spinning magnetic drive, you will ruin it (unless that's what you want); and i don't mean the data, the storage device (flash / nand).

2nd that. Of course, set to the highest degree of overwriting

I think a simple reboot of the system should be fine and all files should be deleted from your device after it. It is also called factory reset, which is kind of the same thing and you can find this option in the setting of any android smartphone. I think that is also the way other programs work with your files so there is no reason to use a program when you can do it directly.

The "trick" I heard for old phones is to format the phone and then record HD video to fill up the storage space. Repeat the process a few times to prevent any sort of forensic file undeletion.

You don't need to use any 3rd party software just to delete all files from your Android phones, Hard reset is enough to erase all files inside in your phone and I think no one will recover it.

If you feel your private keys is not safe why not just make another new wallet to transfer all of your funds to a new wallet?
Or flashing your android phone with new firmware will delete entire program and files and you can use again as fresh as new.

I suggest you don't use any 3rd party software that can affect your EMMC because if it damaged I'm sure in order to use it again you need to replace a new EMMC chip.

That's the way how CCleaner works. It fulfills the empty space on your disc and then delete it. For PC it is a very long process that still not always can guarantee the safety of deleted data.

It feels like I'll still be able to restore information from SSD.

I'm just looking for a universal way that would be suitable not only for private keys but also for photos, videos, apps etc.

It's a very nice subject
Did not pay attention to this aspect.
But the person who bought the computer must know this area.

Is this a successful way?
Because I will try it
I am very afraid of my information.

The best thing to do in this kind of scenario is to reformat your phone. The question now is what is the brand of your phone? Once, you knew the brand, search it on google on how to reformat it.