On Wed, 11 Jul 2001 14:52:40 +0000, Bastiaan Edelman wrote:
> Hi List,
> Q3:
> What is the difference between "to kill" and "to delete" a file?
> My English dictionary does not give the answer.
To delete a file means simply to remove it from your directory
listing, as you would by use of the DOS "del" command for example.
Files deleted in this manner may often be recovered by use of the
"undelete" command or by use of other utilities.
To kill a file means to wipe it clean by use of a special utility.
BTW, here is a good "killfile" utility. It is not one of the
best, but it is certain to render a file unrecoverable by ordinary
mortals like us:
------ begin OBLITR8.BAT -------
@echo off
REM Program Name: OBLITR8.BAT
REM Ref: "DOS World", March 1995, p. 11. This program is a minor
REM modification of the one that originally appeared in the cited reference.
REM This program will delete a file in such a way that data is unrecoverable.
REM This program will work with any PC running DOS 5.00 or above or Windows.
echo.
if "%1" == "" goto help
if "%1" == "/h" goto help
if "%1" == "/H" goto help
if "%1" == "/?" goto help
if "%1" == "?" goto help
if not exist %1 goto mistake
copy c:\command.com %1 /Y > NUL
REN %1 A
DEL A
echo ******** "%1" HAS BEEN OBLITERATED! ******
echo This is a security feature, not an error message.
GOTO END
:mistake
echo ERROR: The file "%1" does not exist. Maybe a typo.
echo Enter correctly the complete file name, including the file extension.
GOTO END
:help
echo Syntax: OBLITR8 FILENAME
echo.
echo This program deletes any named file in such a manner that it is highly
echo unlikely that any original data can ever be recovered. This program
echo works by writing COMMAND.COM over the unwanted file and THEN it renames
echo the file to "A" and THEN it deletes it! If the file to be deleted is
echo larger than COMMAND.COM, then some of the data will be recoverable.)
:END
echo.
------- end OBLITR8.BAT -----------
Have fun with it! BTW, it works amazingly well
when %1 = C:\WINDOWS\WIN.COM
Sam Heywood
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