Hello. I bought a brand new Acer 5720G a few weeks ago. I just have a quick question. I am thinking about returning it as I find it difficult to type on. Anway, I am a little worried about something. I inserted a 8gb flash drive into it a couple of weeks ago. On that flash drive were some scans of bank statements(!) and a passport and other bank documents containing sensitive information. According to my Dad they were in JPEG form. They weren't opened or viewed but they were on the drive that was inserted (a word document was the only thing opened from the drive). My question is, even though they weren't opened, viewed or transferred, could those JPEG scans be retrieved in any way by whoever comes into contact with the laptop in the future when I return it? Does a laptop in some way copy files from a flash drive as soon as it is inserted or as long as the files remain on the flash drive, does someone have to have the actual flash drive at hand to retrieve the files? Confused (and as I'm sure you can see, a little bit paranoid).

Any data could have been damaged, or transfereed (with some other faulty issue.) Flash drives are not very dependable or secure. They do have programs that can try to undelete and otherwise retrieve data. You'd have to search for one that you might wish to try. Look for apps that talk about usb flash files recover. Do you try that drive in another computer? I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Perform a search for files or folders from the start button. You can use the exact file names if you know them, or you can use partial names or simply the extension. IE *.JPEG or *.JPG. If the worrysome files appear just delete them. Be sure to empty the recycle bin. Your other option would be to perform a destructive system restore using the disks or partition provided for that purpose.

jefro The OP is simply worried thier bank records are saved to the harddrive. They don't want to return the unit with them on there.

Unless you specifically and intentionally copied the files to the laptop then they are not on the laptop even if you viewed them on the laptop using Windows Explorer to open any on the laptop. Bryan

Darn it if I didn't read it wrong. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

yep some people on here need to read the breaf properly. if you havent copyied em they will still be on the flash drive. not the laptop. if you opened them even if they needed to set up a temp file its more than likly its next to te original file on the flash drive then after veiwing it the comp deletes it. only part that i know of is word documents can be created to save in two places so ones a back up but since this is a basic question i say you havent set that up. thinking about there is vitual memory but im only saying this for compleatness of this answer. if they comps new i doubt that it would have used that to store the data. and if it has then its very likly to have been written over many times by now by other data. so dont worry the comp will be clean. all text needs typos. There there for the reader to find,to distract them from the total lack of content. google it! wasnt the answer to the question i asked so dont be dense and give me that repl