Totally Delete Internet Explorer History from a RAID Array

Personal Data Security and RAID

Personal security is a vital element of computing. There are many ways in which physical or online intruders can get hold of your personal data and then use it to commit crimes, usually fraud. The same is true of the data found in your Internet Explorer history, which lists websites you have visited, some personal details, etc. – certainly more than enough for a scammer to build up a profile.

Maintaining a safe and secure system can take a little time. with the right tools, you can make sure that any personal data and internet history is removed from your hard disk drive, protecting your privacy. You might also sell your computer someday, so ensuring that such data is removed is again important.

But what happens if your hard disk drives are mirrored using RAID? Will data persist from one device to another, thereby restoring data that you have removed?

What is RAID?

Standing for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, RAID combines multiple disk drives into a single unit with data distributed across the devices. This distribution might be equal or it might be duplicated, with the aim improving reliability and speed. Originally found only on servers, some advanced home users now use a RAID array for storage. Disks in a RAID array can be configured as follows:

RAID 0 – lacking fault tolerance and redundancy, this system sees data striped across multiple physical disks

RAID 1 – the same data is written to multiple disks, improving reliability and tolerance from hardware errors

RAID 2 – disks are perfectly synchronized with each bit of data saved on sequential devices, allowing for very high data transfer rates

There are many other RAID types, and these can even be combined or nested. The main thing to understand is that data sits in multiple physical locations.

Standard Internet Explorer History Deletion

Modern versions of Internet Explorer include advanced tools for removing data from the browser. The Delete Browsing History dialogue box can be opened either via Tools > Internet Options, the Safety menu, or by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+DEL.

Here you can choose to delete Temporary Internet Files, Cookies and History. Even with History deleted, your previous activity can be ascertained by checking the Temporary Internet Files, so removing all of these is advisable. Simply check the boxes beside each and click Delete. You can also go further by removing Form data and Passwords.

Totally Delete Internet Explorer History on a RAID

Removing Internet Explorer history on a RAID array should not require any additional steps; Once the data is deleted, as long as the array is working at full capacity and there are no caching issues, it should remain deleted. However you might opt to delete the contents of your RAID disk cache in order to ensure that the data has indeed been completely removed and doesn’t mysteriously reappear should your computer crash.