Questions about new computer and hard drive

Postby SolidSnickerdoodle » Mon Jun 12, 2017 7:23 pm

Anybody who's seen my previous posts on this forum knows that I'm very concerned with the privacy of my bondage collection. Well, this is another one those posts. :)

I've detailed before that my current laptop has been declining in performance, and more recently it seems to be approaching the end of its life. Because of this I recently acquired a new laptop.

However, it does not come with a hard drive. For the security of the previous owner, it was removed and destroyed. I'll obviously have to look into getting a new one, as well as installing an OS and other programs onto it (which I am in the process of researching). But I considered that this could be a chance for me to start anew so to speak.

All of my bondage content is backed up onto an external hard drive that I have. And once I get my new laptop's systems and hard drive installed, I'll most likely destroy my old hard drive (the one I have now) just so there's no risk of security or banking info getting out.

So, THIS is where my question comes in. What would you guys recommend that I do moving forward as far as my bondage collection is concerned? So far, I've only ever kept my collection on my current computer's hard drive (which I'm now realizing is a massive risk because computers can become corrupted or someone could stumble upon my files which would be very embarrassing).

I'd like to shift towards hosting all of my files off of my computer. Such as the external hard drive that I'm making use of now. But is there any way for me to secure/encrypt my external hard drive? Such as a password lock or something? It's not terribly fancy. Just a $30.00 one that I got from WalMart. It's also hidden away, but don't want to take the chance of my family or someone finding it and looking through it. I'm very self-conscious when it comes to this fetish of mine.

Basically, my goal is to keep this whole process as independent from my new computer as I possibly can. Separation of church and state so to speak. I'm just tired of being nervous when somebody asks if they can borrow my laptop. Or me always being afraid that they'll stumble upon "that folder". So if there's a way that I can save myself a lot of trouble now, I'd very much like to hear it.

Thanks.
Last edited by SolidSnickerdoodle on Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
There is only one God, and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: Not today.

Re: Questions about new computer and hard drive

Postby drawscore » Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:36 pm

The rule of thumb, is "Never keep anything on the hard drive of your computer, that you don't want found." Alternatives are flash/thumb drives, or, as you mentioned, external hard drives. If they are password protected, even better.

Other ideas: "Private Browsing," which, depending on your browser, can be activated by pressing Ctrl-Shift-N or Ctrl-Shift-P. In case you forget, you can always clear your browsing history, which also clears cookies, at the end of your session. It works differently on different browsers, but on Windows computers, just hit the "Windows" logo key, which brings up a menu. and, at the bottom, type in "history" in the search field.

Drawscore

Re: Questions about new computer and hard drive

Postby SolidSnickerdoodle » Tue Jun 13, 2017 2:17 am

drawscore wrote:The rule of thumb, is "Never keep anything on the hard drive of your computer, that you don't want found." Alternatives are flash/thumb drives, or, as you mentioned, external hard drives. If they are password protected, even better.

Drawscore

That was my thought process.

So far I have about 70% of my collection transferred over to the external. I'm having to do it in small increments because moving it all at once would take too long. I tried it once out of curiosity and the progress bar said "Time Remaining: More Than One Day". So yeah, no chance at doing it that way.

My main concern now is how I can go about securing the external. The only method I know of is to put it in a locked folder that requires a password. But even then it's real easy to just open the lock file it in Notepad and change the password. Sure, it'll fool my parents, but anyone with a basic understanding of computers could probably by pass it if they wanted to.

This probably seems like overkill or paranoia on my part, but I'd like to prepare for all outcomes. I intend to keep this thing in a secure place and only bring it out when I want to poke through my collection. But if for some reason it gets lost, or found years later by someone who's curious what's on it then I'm screwed.

I like bondage, and I hate that I have to hide my interest in it like this, but I still live at home and my family is heavily against this sort of thing (really any sort of perversion, fetish, or deviance for that matter). So I don't want to take any chances.
There is only one God, and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: Not today.

Re: Questions about new computer and hard drive

Postby drawscore » Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:16 pm

You're not really paranoid if the whole world really IS out to get you.

Best bet, is to remove everything from your hard drive, and transfer it to a thumb drive, memory stick, flash drive, or DVD. Password protect them. For large files or folders, download them while you sleep. Often, when it says it takes x hours to download, it's an exaggeration. I've had files I wanted to download, and it said eight hours. Actual time, was 45 minutes.

You could also put them up on the cloud, but there are a lot of people that have access to the cloud, so you have to be cautious about the possibility of hackers.

Drawscore