Deleting Files On External Drives

santer_2

On the main PC, CCleaner overwrites anything it removes from the recycle bin

When deleting files from the external drive it just says do you want to permanently delete this file. Does it just remove the pointer and thus leave the file in an easily recoverable state, and if so, is there a better way?

OneADay

CCleaner has an option in the setttings to wipe free space - when you delete something it overwrites everything.
This process slows down the emptying of the bin considerably. There are other options there too.

The warning for "delete permanently" happens when you are deleting a large size of files and there is no room in the recycle bin. Thats windows for you. You can delete in smaller bits and then use ccleaner as normal (without wipe free space option set).

debitcardmayhem

Hi santer the best option is to open the file in random access mode and then change it to "x0000" to end of file, but then I can't remember if it works on Windows, my old version of C got lost(new lappy) , I will dig it out and try (I can do it on Linux but then M$ is not the same is it) The problem is if you use the windows open function I cannot remember if it creates a new entry in the directory (or whatever). Sorry not really much use

santer_2

Would be interested, as if it is anything like the main hard drive where delete just removes the pointer, it leaves the back up as less secure if they can be recovered easily

debitcardmayhem

Best way is really to write your own delete routine, open the file as a stream, change with nonesense and then close it, then delete, but I still cannot remember how windows deals with the "directory". Basically what I am trying to say is open file X as a stream, crap on it , then close it. Sadly it is friday and I have been out on the food and drink,drink and then some drink... and I am working on another project , but will give it some thought. Mind you someone will come up with a link to do what we need (sadly I would normally wait for santer the font of all knowledge )

closed

They are both the same. If you don't overwrite free space on the drive, it's potentially recoverable.

santer_2

So far so good as it can be pointed anywhere, with option of 35 passes

http://www.fileshredder.org/

Seems to work better when run from the desktop icon than when run from the context menu

debitcardmayhem

OK time for bed but.... I created a file called santer and it contained
Hello santer x 386 times. then opened up my *ux box and did a dd of=santer if=crapfile ;rm santer . Then came back to Windows and used recuva found santer and recovered it and lo it contained the stuff in crapfile ie DCMDCMDCM....... ad eof (vs finitum) so it may be promising but as I said I am a bit tried/drunk/tired so I will play again later this w/e :beer:

robmar0se

I use clean disk securiity - easy and simple to use (and free).

http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/clndisk.html

this may also help

http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/securedelete.shtml