Gaybutton wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2026 9:17 amIf you format them anything that was ever on them is gone forever.
Not necessarily.
"Formatting
Formatting media recreates the data structures and file system.
A full format can be used in conjunction with overwriting to provide further assurance that data cannot be recovered.
A reformat is not sufficient to securely delete data because the data can be easily recovered using freely available software."
There are various standards for ensuring the data really cannot be recovered by specialists. These usually involve deleting and then overwriting the data several times. Between 2 & 7 times! https://blancco.com/resources/blog-comp ... standards/
I'm fairly sure the drive I smashed up with a sledgehammer and then put on a bonfire is beyond recovery.
Apparently it's far more difficult to recover deleted data off SSDs, which I discovered whilst searching for the above.
I'm finding quite a bit with Windows 11 that I was not able to do on Windows 10, or at least I either did not know how to do or never occurred to me to try in the first place.
One of my favorite features so far is, with use of Bluetooth, I can link and use smartphone apps right on my PC. I'm sure there are many other features I just have not found yet. If any Widows 11 users out there know of some of the features, please post.
I am also finding programs that are free on the internet, no ads, that had no equivalents I ever found for Windows 10. On Windows 10 for what interested me it was always paid programs. "Free" meant constant nag pop-ups trying to get me to buy their "pro" version. No thanks.
By the way, something I tried on my smartphone that works for several programs full of ads - I simply turned off the internet. The programs worked just fine without internet and that stopped the ads. Give that a try. It works for some, but not all smartphone programs.
For phones, using adguard DNS severely reduces the advertising. I thoroughly recommend it.
On Android, Open Settings, type DNS in the search box & then follow the options to set a private DNS as in the screenshots in this link.
