does formatting remove EVERYTHING of an OS?

[Guest]

first time I started the PC i had a USB drive of windows 8.1 that someone had given me to install windows with along with a key (i didnt know better back then)

when I found out the key was cracked I immediately went and bought a windows 10 box USB copy with key from my local tech store and did a clean re-install of windows including clicking "delete" on all partitions in the "select partition" area of the installer, in essence wiping all storage spaces. In fact I have re-installed windows multiple times since then but for different reasons and always doing that same step. My PC still uses the same installer display/process as it did for 8.1 as it does for 10.

I just want to check that there's nothing of that dodgy 8.1 copy left. I've even deleted windows.old as well and the PC is running normal.

 

[Isleepalot]

Your getting into the touchy topic but if someone wanted to know if you had one, they could do it. but they would have to really try very hard to be able to get recovery of your cracked os. You can use programs that wipe it multiple times but it can't be permanently removed without destroying the drive and getting a new one. You will be fine, your system will be ok and I am sure no one is going to do that.

 

[Guest]

Your getting into the touchy topic but if someone wanted to know if you had one, they could do it. but they would have to really try very hard to be able to get recovery of your cracked os. You can use programs that wipe it multiple times but it can't be permanently removed without destroying the drive and getting a new one. You will be fine, your system will be ok and I am sure no one is going to do that.

TBH I'm not concerned if the OS leaves evidence that it was there, I just want to make sure it cannot be active or compromising my computers security etc. I messed up and I fixed it as soon as I realised it was like that, I will admit that happily because I did the right thing afterwards. Also is it normal for the installer to look the same for Windows 8.1 and 10 when installing the operating systems (the first bit)

 

[wpgwpg]

Just to add some detail as to how it works, formatting removes all entries from the FILE SYSTEM, but the data is actually still there until it's overwritten. The novice would never know the data was still there, but there are easily available programs that will scan the whole drive and recover a lot of that data until it gets overwritten.
So the bottom line is that how secure do you want it to be. If the NSA gets hold of your computer for some reason, they have methods not available to ordinary humans. Somewhere between novices and the government are programs like Recuva that anyone can get and retrieve a good bit. So who do you want to protect against, novices, savvy technical folks, or the government.

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Just to add some detail as to how it works, formatting removes all entries from the FILE SYSTEM, but the data is actually still there until it's overwritten. The novice would never know the data was still there, but there are easily available programs that will scan the whole drive and recover a lot of that data until it gets overwritten.
So the bottom line is that how secure do you want it to be. If the NSA gets hold of your computer for some reason, they have methods not available to ordinary humans. Somewhere between novices and the government are programs like Recuva that anyone can get and retrieve a good bit. So who do you want to protect against, novices, savvy technical folks, or the government.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info- I'm not trying to protect against anyone who could recover it, I'm just wanting to make sure that the OS and anything to do with that installation is no longer active as I have heard those versions are not very secure (among other things- illegal being one of them)