Augeas

I'll answer the easy bit. Recuva ignores whatever types of files are unticked in the options/actions box. I think the default is zero length and securely deleted files. I'm not sure about hidden sys directories. Tick all three and you will get no files ignored, but this is unlikely to help you. You may get better results if you try a deep scan, but this will take some time and return a huge number of files. Well, 15,000 is a huge number to start with, anyway.

Selecting the Gutmann option for secure deletion will not cause your pc to reboot once, let alone constantly. It merely purports to overwrite the data that is selected for deletion many times. Depending on how much data you have to overwrite it may take some time, but six days does seem excessive. One has to assume that you don't have a large number of gb of temp data to overwrite. CC will not overwrite any of the O/S, or any 'good' data. It is intended to remove temporary files only which are not necessary for your pc to run. If you have chosen to wipe free space then the Gutmann option does not apply, you will get one overwrite of zeroes. Wipe Free Space will take a considerable time, again depending on how much free space there is on your disk and how fast your disk is. This will not overwrite any live data at all. Did you run CC and then your pc rebooted immediately, or did the CC run to completion and then the pc rebooted, or what? If nobody has a fast easy answer to your rebooting I should repost in the Spyware Hell forum.

Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore/System Restore Settings. I think there was some talk recently about sys restore points being deleted by CC. I also think it was caused by having the Empty Recycle Bin option ticked. It's best to search the forums.

Add it to your include list. There are too many applications out there for CC to cover them all.

It took me a few reads to (possibly) understand what you're saying here. I think you mean that you right clicked on Cleaner's list of files to be deleted, and than saved that list to a text file. All this does is create a text file which has no connection to anything you're trying to delete (apart from being a list of names, that is). I should stop doing this. Are you running CC with administrator privileges? Can you open your browser and clear the browsing history from there? It's either Tools/Clear Private Data or Clear Recent History in Firefox or Tools/Internet Options/General/Delete Files (under Temp Int Files). Then see what CC shows in Analyse.

It does not appear to be possible to overwrite file info in the MFT, apart from workarounds such as allocating enough new zero-byte files with dummy names to fill the deleted entries and then deleting them (as cleanup software does).

Jeez, your problem is with one of the versions of CC portable, which I don't use. I've wasted too many brain cells on this.

Then I'm stumped. Possibly some file setting, or IE browser setting or option somewhere. I'm surprised you only get two index.dat files on a full analyse, I have six this morning (incl the cookies file).

Are all the files listed not deleted, or just a subset? If the latter, which files are being left?

Have you pressed the Run Cleaner button on the lower right?

This file is listed as being deleted by CC on my XPSP3 box. If I right click on Cleaner/Index.dat Files and choose Analyse, I get Marked for deletion: C:\Documents and Settings\My Name\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat Marked for deletion: C:\Documents and Settings\My Name\Cookies\index.dat What do you get, TB?

I think that the OP is saying that there are index.dat files that CC doesn't delete at all. I have (just done a quick search) 18 index.dat files on my pared-down single-user pc, CC says it will delete five. I don't really mind too much. Maybe these other index.dat files are variable in the way they are created, so CC can't pin them down (and it's not going to search the entire disk). Can they be sent to the recycler, or are they all locked by the O/S? If they can be deleted it would be interesting to see if they are recreated, and if so in the same place or elsewhere. Peculiarly enough, when I run a right click/analyse on the IE index.dat option only, two files show up for deletion. When I run a full analyse five are found. But if I run a right click/analyse in turn on all the other ticked windows and applications options the other three files are not found. How does CC find them?

This would happen if you highlighted the files and then moved the cursor away from the files, but CH did say clicked check boxes.

I don't think that the folder is relevant. Files deleted to the recycler may be renamed to $Dcxx.ext in XP and $Rxxxxxx.ext in Vista, so you could try those names. However if the file was deleted a few weeks ago the chances of recovery won't be good.

You can't rename the files with Recuva. Eventually the names will be overwritten as new files are created, as long as you don't clean too often. You could also use secure deletion in CCleaner, which will rename any files it deletes. This is a bit heavy-handed, though. Alternatively use a disk wiper that does rename deleted files, such as Eraser. That's even heavier-handed.

That doesn't quite answer JB's question though, Hazel. I seem to remember something similar to this, but it isn't easy to reproduce (I imagine, I haven't tried). I can't think of a plausible answer.

To clear out the most clutter then tick all of the boxes. However you might wish to keep some of the data that will be removed this way, passwords, window sizing and position, autofill entries etc. I would go with the standard defaults, which are a reasonable comrpomise between clearing out and usability. You can always experiment with the other settings later.

Probably the difference between allocating and overwriting. For a start, CC will write 70 gb of zeroes on your disk, which is no mean task. And Fsutil? As far as I can see it will create a few entries in the various file and space management tables, and write no data at all.

Hi Aethec, I see you are on Win 7. In Vista the MFT is allocated in 200 mb blocks, which are not necessarily contiguous. I don't think there is such a thing as a MFT Zone. M/S says don't worry about the MFT being in two or more blocks. Maybe this is similar in Win 7? (All this from memory, and it is late.....)

Wipe free space just writes zeroes on top of whatever is in the unused space on your drive. It's a security option, and will not make anything run faster, or slower for that matter. If I were in your position (and to be honest I can't be bothered to run wipe free space) I would leave this option until it becomes more stable a few releases down the line (no disrespect, Piriform). If you want a go-faster tweak then a defrag might pay more dividends. I don't use Defraggler so I can't advise on that, but I'm sure plenty can. Or use the Windows offerring.

Did you try Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore?

Why are you doing all this? Performing any operation on your pc can overwrite whatever you want to recover. Performing all that is simply feckless.

Well, I was just putting forward the general concerns about the idea. I doubt if it's an option I would ever want or use. I don't mind a few empty folders and the number of entries on my Start Menu is set to zero.

I forgot to say that CC would have to know that no new application or system change ever made in the future would ever require an empty folder: that knowledge is unknowable. For instance what new empty folders will be created by any facet of Windows, or FF, or (for instance) whatever new mail system is written, in the future? Nobody knows, but CC would blindly remove them with unknown consequences. 'They generally just make another folder and get on with it' is not sound enough.

What's in the list will be removed, but I think you will find that they are .lnk files or similar, which are shortcuts etc. No 'good' files will be removed, unless you keep them in temp internet files or other temp folders, which would be silly.