kandyman2017

Ok I will try the process again.

This is the same issue I am having. @Augeas He is trying to delete files, but he cannot identify the location of the live data because the filepath is listed as c:\?\. Secure overwrite does not get rid of the thumbnails.

Clearing the free space made no difference. I can't identify where the live data is because Recuva is listing it as being in the directory C: \ ? but there is no such directory. It's an NTFS disk. It says 'no overwritten clusters detected"

Perhaps I'm not explaining this correctly. Let me restate my problem: 1: I deleted pictures which are very personal in nature. 2: I ran a deep scan on Recuva to see if the pictures were 'really' deleted. Because I don't want the pictures to be recovered ever by anyone. 3: The scan showed thumbnails of the pictures I had deleted. 4: I tried to securely overwrite the files which showed the thumbnails. But I got the error stated above. 5: I am left with the problem that private pictures (or thumbnails of them) can still be recovered. I don't want any possibility of them being recovered. What is the next step?

So in order to get rid of those thumbnails, I have to find out where they are located and delete the live file, right?

When you say 'live file', you mean a file that has not been deleted? So it can't delete the thumbnails because they are still on the drive somewhere. Is that what you mean? Or do you mean that part of the deleted file is permanently gone because it has been overwritten but part has not? Sorry but I'm not clear on the process. Yes it is thumbnails I am seeing. And it's those thumbnails I want to get rid of.

I did a deep scan for all pictures and found several hundred thumbnails which I want to securely overwrite. However, when I select them and try to overwrite, I get the message "Not overwritten - file is already overwritten with existing file(s)". I've tried either highlighting or checking them, but it doesn't make a difference. The thumbnails can't be deleted and I can even copy them to clipboard and paste them into Paint or Word or whatever. So the image still exists. How can I securely remove these thumbnails such that the image will not be displayed even on a deep scan by Recuva?