Windows permanently(?) delete file

by robbo230 Feb 12, 2011 12:10AM PST

Hi. Yes, I downloaded some 'music' files and then saw they were 'nasty' stuff and wanted to delete them. I followed Microsoft's instructions and used Shift-Del and got a message asking if I want to permanently delete them so I replied Yes. A friend says this might not be good enough, has anyone come across this please?
Regards robbo

Discussion is locked

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In what way?

by MarkFlax Forum moderator Feb 12, 2011 5:15AM PST

In what way might this not be good enough, did your friend say?

Shift + DEL bypasses the Recycle Bin and that's good enough for most. However, Windows doesn't delete the file, only the file header, and so the bulk of the file remains on the disk as available disk space. That means the data will eventually be overwritten by other files and data.

To securely delete a file you need specialised software, but once Windows has deleted it (the header only), usually you can do nothing about the remainder until it is over-written or you re-format and reinstall Windows.

Even then, specialist data recovery people could recover file fragments, even after a re-format.

Mark

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Deleting files

by robbo230 Feb 12, 2011 5:57AM PST

Well, I had to agree with him that we sometimes see news reports about people who have borrowed or used a friends/relatives computer and found, shall we say, 'nasty' stuff on it and reported it. It's OK saying not very likely but it does happen and the owner would have to prove that he hadn't put the files there deliberately.
It's that bit: "the bulk of the file remains on the disk" that has ME worried now!
Think I'll try some of the specialised software and put my mind at rest.
Thanks for your timely reply.
Regards

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Have a look at this

by peacox Feb 13, 2011 7:15AM PST

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443

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SDelete, linked to in another response

by Edward ODaniel Feb 13, 2011 9:31AM PST

is a good utility but rather slow. (It is the one from sysinternals)

Another good one that is a little quicker is Eraser from this link -
http://eraser.heidi.ie/

Another good one is both a file recovery utility and a secure deletion utility. It is called Restoration 2.5.14 and available from many sources such as snapfiles - http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.HTML To securely delete files you first use it to find all deleted files on a drive or partition then having found them you click the little menu labled Others then the Delete Completely item. You are then offered some choices and chances to back out. Restoration also removes the FAT entry for the file which many other secure deletion utilities do not do.

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(NT) Do You have CCleaner on your computer?

by BlackBart1955 Feb 14, 2011 12:43PM PST

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Do you have CCleaner on your computer?

by BlackBart1955 Feb 14, 2011 12:52PM PST

If you do have it installed, then delete the file the normal way, placing it into the Recycle Bin. Then fix the settings so that whenever CCleaner deletes files, it actually wipes them 3 times. This will make sure that when it deletes all the files out of the Recycle Bin, it WILL securely delete your files that you want deleted.

Change these setting in CCleaner
Options / Settings / Secure File Deletion (Slower) / DOD 5220.22-M (3 Passes)
Options / Advanced / UNCHECK "Only delete files in Windows Temp folders older than 24 hours.

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Yes I have Ccleaner

by robbo230 Feb 14, 2011 5:57PM PST

Yes, I use Ccleaner but I never thought to look at the settings, especially the one re Temp folders. Think I'll give it a go, thanks for your interest, fjord_fox.

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thanks

by robbo230 Feb 14, 2011 5:59PM PST

oh and thanks also to MarkFlax, peacox, and Edward.

Windows permanently(?) delete file

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