This is confusing. Please forgive my ignorance (and my persistence!) but I think the Recuva documentation needs to be better-written, better organized, better-explained, and better-coordinated with CCleaner’s documentation.
Augeas says “CC can change file names because it can rename them before deletion, in the same way as any user can. Recuva (and any software running under Windows) can't rename a deleted file nor amend the file name in the MFT as the file system will not allow access to protected metafile data.”
Not really sure why if Recuva can recover a deleted file, it can’t also rename it.
But what's really confusing is that it appears that CCleaner both CAN and CANNOT securely delete filenames and/or files that have been deleted:
On one page of Recuva’s documentation, it says “Secure overwrite [in Recuva] does not affect file names, which continue to exist in the MFT (Master File Table). In order to overwrite names of deleted files, please use the Wipe MFT Free Space option in CCleaner.” (http://www.piriform.com/docs/recuva/using-recuva/advanced-mode/securely-overwriting-your-files)
And in CCleaner's documentation, it says “For privacy and security reasons, you can set CCleaner to wipe the free areas of your hard disk so that deleted files can never be recovered.” (http://www.piriform.com/docs/ccleaner/using-ccleaner/wiping-free-disk-space)
But then another page in CCleaner’s documentation says “CCleaner can only securely delete files which have not yet been deleted from the Recycle Bin. If you have already deleted files insecurely (for example, using Windows Explorer), you can delete them securely using Recuva.”
WTF???
All I want to do is securely delete all my “deleted” files, including their filenames. That’s it. Why is that so hard?