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Questions tagged [overwrite]

52 questions
54
votes
8 answers

Windows INSERT key anti-functionality accidentally triggers; how to stop it permanently?

We all use editing facilities to change a line of text as we are entering it. There are two principal editing modes within a line, a) "insert mode" which inserts non-editing characters at the point of the cursor, and shuffles text to the right, and…
Ira Baxter
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14
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3 answers

What does "type nul > somefile" do to "somefile" in Windows?

Specifically, does type nul > somefile overwrite the entire file on disk? I saw a batch script website recommend generating an FTP script on the fly and then "securely" erasing it with the command in title. Is there any merit to this?
wes
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10
votes
1 answer

Windows 7: does formatting a disk actually write zeros to it?

According to this article from Microsoft, zeros are written to an entire disk when it is formatted (not using the quick format option) in Windows Vista and newer versions of Windows. My question is the following: Does this also apply to Windows 7?…
user49897
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9
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4 answers

How do I delete a file that is in use by another process?

Possible Duplicate: How do I delete a 'locked' file? More specifically, I'm trying to rename or overwrite a file, and get the message Access Denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and the file is not currently in use. Is…
Nick
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5
votes
2 answers

How to increase Hard-Disk LifeSpan?

1) What factors affect the life of a hard disk? 2) Does frequent writing on the disk reduce its life? 3) What is the average life span of a hard disk under normal condition? 4) Does less writing and more reading actions taking on the hard disk…
subanki
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4
votes
2 answers

I accidently overwrote a linux shell program and would like to fix it

I accidentally overwrote one of the programs in the /bin directory, and would like to fix it. I am using Ubuntu 11.10, and would like some way to re-install just this file, without having to re-install the whole distribution. Specifically, I…
jdg
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4
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3 answers

How to wipe all data on HDD (Windows 10 system partition)?

I am a bit surprised that I didn't found a canoncial (= recommended by Microsoft) way of doing this by searching Google but here we are: I am tasked to delete all data safely from a Windows 10 Computer with a single HDD and a single partition (which…
cluelessdeleter
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3
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1 answer

how can i overwrite existing log file in inno setup

i am new to inno setup. I want logging information, for that I set SetupLogging=yes and I used following code for getting log file . procedure CurStepChanged(CurStep: TSetupStep); var logfilepathname, logfilename, newfilepathname: string; …
beginner
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3
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5 answers

Linux - Copy only new and larger files

I have two directories with thousands of files which contain more or less the same files. How can I copy all files from dirA to dirB which are not in dirB or if the file exists in dirB only overwrite it if it's smaller. I know there are a lot of…
das Keks
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3
votes
3 answers

Overwriting files vs deleting them?

(I hope this is the right community to ask) Throughout the day, I need to save various images to my computer and then dispose of them soon after. Because of this, I created a PNG file called TempImage on my computer that I can just overwrite each…
Mr Awesome8
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2
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1 answer

Why is it faster to copy than overwrite?

I noticed this in general: its faster to copy a large file from my computer to my USB than it is to overwrite it. For example, I have a file a.txt thats 10 gb. If my USB is blank and I copy my file to the USB, its pretty quick. However, if my USB…
Bill M
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2
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1 answer

Overwriting a files in place on NTFS

Let's say I have a Python program that opens a file and overwrites it with zeros, and I run it on a Windows 7 computer formatted in NTFS. If this is done on an HDD (not an SSD) will the file be overwritten in place on the disk, or will the changes…
chew socks
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2
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1 answer

How to fill a flash drive with 1s instead of zeros

I recently ran the F3Tools on a large USB thumb drive that I purchased. It has a 240 GB FAT32 filesystem (not exFAT or NTFS, actual FAT32) on it, and it's supposed to be 256 GB, so I got slightly suspicious. Turns out it's legit, but now I have a…
user755592
1
vote
1 answer

How can I update one source tree from another?

I have an existing source-tree, with a bunch of sub-directories and thousands of source files. I have a new source-tree where some of the files have been updated and some new files/directories added. The existing source-tree has a bunch of hidden…
user23935
1
vote
2 answers

Windows FTP - skip file if it already exists

I have a little script in Windows that opens up a connection to a web server and downloads all the files using mget. However, the mget constantly downloads the files even if they already exist. Is there an FTP command that can skip already existing…
jholmie2
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