How to permanently delete files, pictures etc., that show up with Recuva?

Hello All,

Happy easter weekend to everyone.

Yesterday, I deleted some pictures by mistake and I used Recuva to try and recover them (which I did, though some of them could not be recovered!).

But when I ran Recuva (on all my drives), it showed up something like 111,000 pictures dating back couple of years.... Now, that means all those pictures are still on the system, taking up hard drive space and so on, right?

How do I remove them completely? I didn't realize there were so many pictures from all these years, which I deleted because I didn't need them, but still are lying around?

And obviously (!!?!) it would free up more space, isn't it?

Thanks in advance... cheers.

 

They are "deleted" in the sense that they will be overwritten if the disk ever needs to use the sectors they occupy. Unless you are trying to hide some sort of incriminating evidence, you can consider them gone. Still recoverable, but not taking up any real space. Placeholders, if you will.

When a file is deleted, all Windows does is marks the sector as "free" so that it can be re-used when needed, only on a TRIM-enabled SSD is the sector actually erased (relatively) immediately.

 

LOL.. thanks, but no incriminating evidence is being hidden they are all just some useless pictures (personal from the camera) and countless images that I've been browsing through... In fact, for example, I saw many full size, fully recoverable desktop wallpapers that I've been browsing through but which I deleted or which I didn't download at all, except for seeing them on the browser....

I was just surprised at the volume of these recoverable files, many that could be recovered in excellent quality.. and I was wondering where all those files were and if they were taking up space.. and if, there was a way i could remove them completely..

Also, I saw that many files (pictures mainly) are from the websites (all those gif's and png's and so on, 1000's of them...) that show up in Recuva.. I assume these are the temp files or whatever, but when cleaning up the drive (using windows built-in disk cleanup, or with some 3rd party tool like easycleaner or ccleaner), shouldn't they all be gone??!!

Anyway, thanks a lot once again.. cheers.

 

Lol.. careful what you delete or more importantly download lol.

Recuva is a useless program. I want to just throw that out there for starters. In fact, out of all the programs that I have ever used (which is tons btw) to recover files, Recuva is the worst program overall.

The best I have found is 'Recover My Files' found via Google. Recuva is just a useless program. Please don't take my 'opinion' the wrong way though, that's all it is, an opinion.

As for your answer, it is as Syberia said. They aren't there any more, just the file entires which will be overwritten in time. They don't take up any space.

In the future if you want your stuff back. Be sure to not write anything to the drive at all. Don't install or uninstall anything. Use a program like 'Recover My Files' and it should have pretty much a 100% success rate in getting everything back. Just be really sure not to write anything at all to the drive after you accidently delete something. Because if you do it usually goes straight over what you just accidently deleted.

 

the only real way that you wont be able to recover files or folders is if they are securely deleted by using secure deletion in accordance with DOD 5220.22 or the Gutmann method which overites your drive with 0xxx0x0xx0x0xxx00x00x etc etc.

but if you know what your doing anything can be recovered

 

CCleaner has an option on it to wipe free space, it gives you choices on how you want to wipe it, how many passes, this should do the job.

Alternatively, I've used this program, Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format. this also does the job.

 

Kill Disk is great. I have that plus a few other Dos programs that are meant to be able to do Low Level Formats. In truth if you want to spend literally a month wiping a 1TB hard drive... or even longer with a Gutmann wipe. Which is like 35 passes... then be my guest... Must have been some crazy pr0n you were watching

I don't think looking/worrying about anything is worth a Gutmann wipe.. Gutmann wipes aren't all that good these days either because the Gutmann method were designed for older MFM/RLL encoded disks... 2 or so Zero-Fills + a normal NTFS format to get the drive back and mounted would be absolutely plenty to wipe anything...

If you really are sooooo paranoid you could buy a huge industrial magnet from Ebay and just wipe that over the top of your HDD.

Lets face it... there is no need for a DOD 5220.22 erase these days.. Just clean your internet cache.. Assuming of course you're worried about what you've done.. rather than if you just want to do a huge wipe because you like watching progress bars.

 

lol ^^ true. only mentioned those 2 as they are included in tune up utilities.

and yes ive used the magnet before but on a larger scale. a mri scanner

its the only way we can totally wipe hard drives on a regular basis when we have over 4000 computers due to patient confidentiality data.

 

Thanks for all the replies people..

Btw, I didn't know CCleaner has an option to wipe free space.. will check it out. Also, thanks for the "recover my files"...

PS., there is nothing, that I am worried would be found, on my computer just that I was very surprised at the amount of files Recuva showed up..

Anyway, thanks a lot once again.. Cheers.

 

work in a hospital so no problem with access.
it can be risky and the drive has to be in like a backpack but on your front so you have more strength using your arms to hold it in place as if the drive got stuck to the magnet then its a £300,000 removal fee.
ive had a hip replacement and got metal pins in my foot but ive had scans before without any problem.

 

To answer the OP's question.
When you have scanned your drive for files you get a list of all the files you can recover. To permanently delete these, check them all with a tick, then right click any of the files and choose 'permanently delete all checked'. It will prompt you with an info box stating that all files will be deleted from your computer and unrecoverable - click 'ok' and your done!

Hope this cleared it up a bit.

Cheers,
Perrin.

 

Even if you've overwritten data on a HDD it can still be recovered and restored. But that would be very difficult after even a single pass.

 

Totally OT, but I'm betting that your hip and metal pins are all titanium, and therefore non-ferrous. That means that they aren't magnetic, so no danger in an MRI. On the other hand, computer drives are made of steel cases and such, so they're highly magnetic (as you have noticed).

But honestly what you're doing sounds HIGHLY dangerous... see if you can get the hospital to spring for a ~£2000 drive degausser for you. It's much cheaper than the repair + medical bills if you ever get hurt degaussing with the MRI.

 

I used partition wizard to write 0's , one pass, and then used a commercial file recovery program that gets paid only if they can recover remnants , it showed "0" files can be recovered,, your mileage may vary.

Cheers
3Fees

 

You beat me to the same OT post.

 

i dont actually do it all myself (im not that stupid ) but one of the IT guys does. the pins in my foot are metal and if i get a normal magnet i can get it to stick to my foot.
theres ways for them to tone the strength of the magnet down so it doesnt rip the drives while also taking body parts with it.
wish it was that easy to order a magnet degausser. we cant even order the basics like pens/post it notes/highlighters etc as the nhs in the uk is in dire straights and its all about save save save at the moment.