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I am concerned about information left on my hard drive in the WIN386.SWP file. I use Washee, Spider, and finally Eraser 5.6. But Eraser 5.6 doesn't wipe the WIN386.SWP file so all that info is still there. Is it cool to erase this file? Will it just pop up at the next Boot up like index.dat does, or will I really fubar things up?
What about using a Swap file Overwriter? Is there one for Windows98?
BOHICA!
The Windows Swap file (WIN386.SWP) is created by Windows and if it happens to be removed, Windows recreates the file unless it has been disabled.
Drop into MS-DOS mode and delete it from the command prompt. This will clean out any previously swapped code.
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If you're that worried about it, after deleting it use a dos utility to wipe the free space on your drive. That way everything is wiped expect existing files. There's nothing left to recover.
Pre-windows Norton utilities had wipefile and wipeinfo commands. I would think their newer versions would also. Or a google search might turn up some freeware.
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Anything from the computer's memory can be written to disk. Chances are that if you are running Windows, and have sensitive documents, a copy of them is in the swap file. If these documents do not get written over or deleted by the time the PC is turned off, anyone can examine the file and see where you have been.
To clean out the swap file, key in the following line in MS-DOS:
DEL C:\WIN386.SWP
Press Enter.
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That only deletes it, it doesn't wipe it. All the delete command does is erase the first letter of the file name. The file contents are still there until they're written over by another file or erased.
A simple dos way to overwrite a file is to find a file in another directory (or copy it to another directory) approximately the same size as the file you want overwritten. Then temporarily rename it to the file you want overwritten. Then use the copy command to write it to the same directory as the file you want overwritten. It'll ask if you want to overwrite the file. Answer 'Y'. After it's copied then delete the file.
This isn't the best way to remove win386.swp, though. That file flucuates in size and is constantly being updated, meaning it's not always in the same place. The best way for that is, as I mentioned above, to delete it and then wipe all the free space on the drive.
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Best solution, get more ram and turn off the swap file.
Some things need a swap file (my printer for instance), so I have created a ram drive using xmsdisk and put a small swap file on the ram drive to keep my printer happy and use the conservativeswapfileusage tag so that windows only uses the swap file when it has used all available ram. My swap file is usually 0 KB in size.
Of course windows stores info in the registry and other places so dont think you're safe.You can get some dos utilities that will wipe the swap file on shutdown... scorch or scour, I forget which, once you set it up right.
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There's a simple way to erase your swap file on bootup.Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Performance/Virtual Memory. Check the button which says "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" and fill in the blanks below, setting the minimum to zero. This will create a swap file of zero every time you boot. Set the maximum to whatever you like - I use RAM size*4
Bryan
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1. "Best solution, get more ram and turn off the swap file."
--Windows NEEDS a swap file no matter how much physical ram you use. Windows is notorious at memory mangement. Besides, this is going to cost him money if he does NOT need the extra memory.2. Daveincaps' suggesstion for 'wiping' the file does work. But you can use a utility like file shredder, etc to permanantly delete the file from windows without having to go to DOS.
3. "...a copy of them is in the swap file. If these documents do not get written over or deleted by the time the PC is turned off, anyone can examine the file and see where you have been."
-- echo, can you please explain to the less informed me, how data in the swap file can be 'recovered'??IF you want the swap file delted, then the best option is to go into dos and remove the file attributes (remember it is a hidden file) and then delete it.
Daveincaps, if a file is deleted from pure DOS, I think the undelete command works only for that session. If the comp is rebooted, then that file cannot be recovered. Ofcourse this is n't the case with Windows....
If I am wrong, kindly let me know, I might as well learn a couple of new things before hittingthe bed today...regards,
Kailas Shastry,
India.
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also, on slower machines, it would be best to set the minimum and maximum values of virtual mem to the same amount (usually about 2 or 3 times phy ram). This will save the processor the extra work of calculating the swap file size and then creating/recreating it often.
You can also make a seperate partition of about 300 MB for this purpose so that it does not interfere with other files and cause fragmentation, besides being slightly faster.
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Sorry Kailas, you are wrong. Windows 9X/ME doesn't need a swap if you use the trick conservativeswapfileusage=1 in the system.ini file.
I use it since I have 192 MB RAM and my swap file is almost always at 0 byte. And if the file size grows, the usage (which is the *key* for the swap file) is always zero.Take a look here
an excellent article about memory management.
Excerpt :How does Windows know how much swap file space you might need in the near future? Each program specifies how much memory should be set aside (allocated) for its use. Generally, programmers request more memory than they need. (If done skillfully, this is a good thing: When running a program, one would rather have a bit too much memory available, rather than a bit too little, right?) This resembles reserving a table at a restaurant, even if you don't plan to show up to eat, just in case you get hungry later. An OS has to allocate this requested memory for possible use by the program, even if it may never be used. Windows is smart enough to use the swap file for these "unused restaurant table reservations," rather than use physical RAM! Think about it: This frees all of physical RAM for actual current memory needs - active program code, actively used data, etc. - and diverts the "wasted space" allocations away from physical RAM. If you have enough RAM, the swap file is never written to - it just takes reservations!
end of excerpt. So when I say that my swap file grows in size, it's only a disk space reservation, there is nothing written to the swap ! The only judge is the swap file usage.
For 2K/XP, rules are different.
Pierre.
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As far as recovering a file that's been deleted--as long as the file contents are there it can be recovered. Windows itself doesn't do anything special to erase or overwrite deleted files. But to say that it's possible doesn't necessarily mean it's easy.
Old versions of dos had the undelete command. When you executed that you'd get all the files in the current directory that had been deleted, minus the first letter of the file name. All you had to do was respond with a letter and you'd get the file back. It would even list files that weren't recoverable because they had been partially overwritten.
With win 9x on a fat16 partition you can still use the dos 6.22 undelete command. I don't think it'll work with fat32 partitions. And windows didn't come with an undelete command although I'm sure there's 3rd party software that will do the same thing.
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in a nutshell i am computer "illiterate" next to everyone here. I do know that i surf tons on the 'puter and it's not as fast as it used to be even with 160MB ram added. i run adaware and it seems that i pick up tons of spyware and it always has these data miners and tracking apps. is this possible it's a virus in my WIN386.SWP? i clean my free space using a clean disk security program. but, it seems like i need to delete this first? if anyone has some time, it would be much appreciated to learn how to revive my computer from all this attempted browser hijack nonsense.
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aaron,
Suggest you create a post of your own on this same forum. Might get a better response.
In the meantime, go to the following website:
http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/Download: StartupList 1.52.1
This application lists just about everything that is running on your PC.
Run the application, and post the results so we can take a look at what is running at start up.
While at the same website, you may want to download Spybot Search and Destroy, as well as HijackThis!. These programs may also come in handy with the type of problems you are experiencing.
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