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Figure 14-47 Start a new transfer or continue one?

The easiest way for someone to compromise or access sensitive data is to simply walk up and take it when you’re not looking. This is especially true when copying information to a new, unprotected system. Don’t set a copy to run while you go out to lunch, but rather be there to supervise and remove any remnant data that might still reside on any mass storage devices, especially hard drives.

You might think that, as easy as it seems to be to lose data, you could readily get rid of data if you tried. That’s not the case with magnetic media, though, such as hard drives and flash memory. Cleaning a drive completely is very difficult. Repeated formatting won’t do the trick. Partitioning and formatting won’t work. Data doesn’t necessarily get written over in the same place every time, which means that a solid wipe of a hard drive by writing zeroes to all of the clusters still potentially leaves a lot of sensitive and recoverable data, typically called remnants, on the drive.

Although you can’t make data 100 percent unrecoverable short of physically shredding or pulverizing a drive, you can do well enough for donation purposes by using one of the better drive-wiping utilities, such as Webroot’s Window Washer (Figure 14-48). With Window Washer, you can erase your Web browsing history, your recent activity in Windows (such as what programs you ran), and even your e-mail messages permanently. As an added bonus, you can create a bootable disk that enables you to wipe a drive completely.

Figure 14-48 Webroot Window Washer security software

Recycle

An important and relatively easy way to be an environmentally conscious computer user is to recycle. Recycling products such as paper and printer cartridges not only keeps them out of overcrowded landfills but also ensures that the more toxic products are disposed of in the right way. Safely disposing of hardware containing hazardous materials, such as computer monitors, protects both people and the environment.

Anyone who’s ever tried to sell a computer more than three or four years old learns a hard lesson: they’re not worth much if anything at all. It’s a real temptation to take that old computer and just toss it in the garbage, but never do that!

First of all, many parts of your computer—such as your computer monitor—contain hazardous materials that pollute the environment. Luckily, thousands of companies now specialize in computer recycling and will gladly accept your old computer. If you have enough computers, they might even pick them up. If you can’t find a recycler, call your local municipality’s waste authority to see where to drop off your system.

An even better alternative for your old computer is donation. Many organizations actively look for old computers to refurbish and to donate to schools and other organizations. Just keep in mind that the computer can be too old—not even a school wants a computer more than five or six years old.

Post Installation: How All the Pieces Fit Together

You know from previous chapters the locations of many of the user-focused folders that are installed automatically. The Windows desktop, for example, is simply a folder, most commonly found in the user folders section of the C: drive. Similarly, My Documents/Documents is just another folder.

Installation creates a set of Windows-specific files and folders that the OS needs to run a PC. Some of these files and folders are directly on the root of the C: drive; others can be elsewhere. The best way to remember the locations of these files and folders and to know their importance to the OS is by looking at how they interact to boot the PC. Windows 2000 and Windows XP have pretty much the same files and boot process; Windows Vista differs a bit, so we’ll look at the latter OS separately.

The 2000/XP Boot Process

Windows 2000 and XP distinguish between the files that start the operating system (called the system files) and the rest of the operating