Where are all emails, chats, and sites stored on my hard drive and how
do I assess them.

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Request for Question Clarification by serenata-ga on 16 Mar 2003 08:14 PST

Hi Poohbear -

It would help to know what your operating system is and which chat
programs you use (all of them) and which email programs you use - as
each operating system and chat or email program has its own place for
storing histories and email files.

Thanks,
Serenata

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Clarification of Question by poohbear28-ga on 17 Mar 2003 03:31 PST

Hi I have Windows ME and I use AOL for chat and mail and outloook
express. I read at Fuckmicrosoft.com about how everything is stored on
the hard drive and I went through the whole process and I found the
files in DOS but I couldn't open them to access them and actually see
what is in them. I know the police use a system to get all hidden info
off someone computer. I'm interested in knowing what program does this
or how to get the imfo out of DOS so I can actually read it. Thanks :)

Hi Poohbear:

Well, you were *slightly* misinformed by your research. None of your
AOL chats are logged unless you specifically request otherwise, and
even then it's difficult to do.

The files that you were referring to are called "index.dat" and
"username.mbx(dbx/pst)" and contain backups of your Internet cache
(all webpages and images you have viewed) and also all of your Outlook
Express messages (including deleted ones). I was not able to find any
publically-available program that enables you to open these files as
if they were regular files. The only recourse you have if you don't
want the contents used against you is to delete them, or, in the case
of your Outlook Express Mailbox folder, to compact it, go to
Tools>Options>Maintenance>Clean Up Now>Compact. Instructions for
deleting the persistent browser cache are available at
http://www.fuckmicrosoft.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml#2, but be
forewarned to only delete those files.

If this method of caching concerns you, please feel free to use
alternative browsers (http://www.opera.com http://www.mozilla.org
http://www.netscape.com) that do not use Windows' cache. Most of these
browsers also have very capable mail clients.

I hope this information answered your questions - if it did not,
please feel free to request a clarification.

Thank you,

/gleffler-ga

Search terms:
Microsoft persistent cache
Outlook express cache
Windows hidden cache

Include an obscure or made-up word (like 'poohbear') during a chat.

Then do a 'Find' for 'poohbear'.

Finally, if anything turns up, have a look at the 'Properties'.

The problem you described could be quite possibly in a hidden
directory on the hard disk. In your options when you have the
appropiate drive open, you can tell windows to 'SHOW ALL' or 'Hide
System Files/Directories'

with the show all option active, it means all files on your computer,
regardless marked hidden or not, will be shown, please note: this may
reveal certain files, should these files be deleted, it could be
detremental to the operation of windows me.

Actually, all of the "suggestions" on fuckmicrosoft.com are false, and
could result in the total destruction of your Operating Systems
usefulness.  Deleting many of the files that are suggested can and
will result in a totally unusable system.

The files have no bearing on what Microsoft can do with your machine. 
If you're really that worried about them trying to do something,
either try switching Operating Systems to something you're more
comfortable with (security wise), or don't connect to the Internet. 
Microsoft can't get any information from a machine they can't see.

Just a note of warning.  I had located and removed such files from my
computer.  It totally destroyed the "System Restore" feature.  I
thought maybe I could regain some disk space.  If you have nothing to
hide (or even if you do) it is really not worth it.

I suppose the virus that wiped me a few days later did have its silver
lining.  After a disk wipe and complete reload of the operating
system, everything works fine again.