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Wiping Bluetooth and Nav Information After a Crash

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by treet007, Oct 16, 2014.

  1. treet007

    treet007 Member

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    Hi there. About a two weeks ago, I totaled my 2010 Prius III (which was paid off in May this year and I just had the car washed prior to the accident). No one was seriously injured, but the front of my Prius was basically crushed into the bottom part of my vehicle. Since the car was totaled, I needed to wipe my Bluetooth data (e.g. contact list and call history) plus Nav previous addresses before the vehicle was to be salvaged. My privacy fear was that the parts would be sent to other countries and the memories could be recovered. So, the collision shop was able to attach a battery and power up the dash, where I deleted the phones and the Nav previous addresses.

    The questions are:
    1. Was there another way to wipe the data?
    2. Could the data be recovered even after deleting the phones?

    Thanks in advanced. --George
     
    #1 treet007, Oct 16, 2014
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    there is no such thing as totally deleting the data. it's always in there somewhere. best thing to do is remove the hard ware and totally destroy it.
     
    #2 bisco, Oct 16, 2014
  3. Easy Rider 2

    Easy Rider 2 Senior Member

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    That's a wild guess you are taking and very well may not be true.

    The spinning hard disk platter type of memory systems certainly leave the data intact but there is no real reason to think that solid state memory would also do that.

    I don't know but think that the value of the "information" is so low that it would not be worth the trouble.
     
    #3 Easy Rider 2, Oct 18, 2014
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    everything i write is a guess.
     
    #4 bisco, Oct 18, 2014
  5. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    There is every reason to believe that solid state memory will also do that. I once recovered a few 'erased' pictures from a flash drive this way.

    The basic software that controls most file systems on mass storage devices deletes files the same way, regardless of the actual media. Some file headers and pointers are erased, and the bulk file space is released and made available to be used again. But the actual content held in that released bulk space is not altered at that time. It remains until the space is allocated to a new file and something new is actually written there.
     
    #5 fuzzy1, Oct 18, 2014
  6. Easy Rider 2

    Easy Rider 2 Senior Member

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    You might be right IF the OPSYS for the car's system is one adapted from a bigger system that actually uses hard drives.
    Some of them likely ARE.
    Some of them likely are not.
    Flatly stating that you KNOW how it works.........when you don't (bisco) is being irresponsible.
     
    #6 Easy Rider 2, Oct 18, 2014
  7. Robert Holt

    Robert Holt Senior Member

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    On PCs we used to do a low level reformatting of a disk drive which would flip all the bits to "0" and truly delete the data, but I do not know if that option is available in modern systems.
     
    #7 Robert Holt, Oct 18, 2014
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
  8. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    This SHOULD be easy to do. I mean, cars change hands. Nothing in the Owners Manual?
     
    #8 Mendel Leisk, Oct 18, 2014
  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    In my 2010 manual, it says on page 327:

    When transferring ownership of the vehicle
    Be sure to initialize the system to prevent the personal data from being
    improperly accessed.



    And on page 335 further explanation, on the menu tree:

    Setup > System Setup > Initialize > Initialization
     
    #9 Mendel Leisk, Oct 18, 2014
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    a coroner could still find it.
     
    #10 bisco, Oct 18, 2014
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