Erasing files in Ubuntu: other devices still see the files

[Toby Dickenson]

Dotan Cohen wrote:

> What gives? Why are these erased files still visible to other 
> computers? And why can other Ubuntu machines not see the files? 

As I think youve already worked out this is not "supposed" to happen.
something has gone wrong. The question is, what? possibly...

a. You didnt do the sync you thought you did, or there is some other problem
on your kubuntu machine that caused the problem. maybe bad ram? I can
assure you that normally kde does not do what you describe.

b. Some problem on your memory stick which means it is corrupting data. In
this case, the directory index. This would be unusual, but not impossible.

c. The software in your DVD player has a bug which means it shows deleted
files. Can you try looking at your memory disk using some other computer?

> How
> can I be sure that sensitive documents that I've erased are in fact
> gone?

"Delete" is not sufficient to ensure that sensitive documents do not get
exposed. This is actually a difficult problem on any operating system.
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_remanence for more information.

I hope this helps,