Deleted files, wipe free space.
When running a recovery tool, they still show up.
I am probably wrongly assuming they would be lost forever recovery tools would not show them anymore??
What do I need to do to make these deleted files really disappear?
Thanks.
The filenames of deleted files may still be seen by recovery software, depending on what options you used when wiping, but are the files actually recoverable ?
When you wipe free space you are wiping where now deleted file data used to be.
However that does not remove the old filename from the Windows Master File Table (MFT) and so recovery software can often still see that there was a file, but can’t recover the data that used to be in it because it’s been overwritten (wiped).
In CCleaner there is an option to wipe the MFT Free Space as well:
PS. Are you using ‘Wipe Free Space’ in Custom Clean, or using the Drive Wiper tool?
Whilst I’m not 100% sure I think that setting only applies to Custom Clean, so it may only be the Custom Clean WFS that would leave the MFT untouched unless that option is ticked.
I think that using the Drive Wiper tool to wipe the Free Space will always clear the MFT free space, which is why it doesn’t have/need such a MFT option.
Many thanks for the feedback. Really appreciated!
Have to be honest, the Options > Wipe MFT Free Space, I wasn’t aware of it.
I just used the “Tools” item only.
That said, I do not wish to wipe the entire drive, which I believe can be compared with a ‘Full Format’, taking days in case of 8-10-12+ TB drives.
Am seeking a way to have the deleted files and folders be wiped and randomly renamed, so there is no way of ‘guessing’ what they were about.
So I did the Wipe Free Space again, this time with Wipe MFT Free Space checked.
Once done I used a file recovery tool, not Recuva but another tool, but Partition Wizard Recover Data.
Note Recuva nicely shows all ZZZZ files and folders, advanced scan result. There is nothing that can be restored.
OTOH Partition Wizard does show quite a number of files (PDF, images, etc.) that could be restored. Successfully restored some PDFs and photos.
Presumably those were not the same files that Recuva said were zzzzz, but were different files?
Maybe files that Recuva hadn’t found at all?
PS. I use mini-tool Partition Wizard myself for paritioning tasks, but haven’t tried it for file recovery.
The ZZZ Recuva files are (very) small - counting in bytes, and few kb at best.
The Partition Wizard “Recovered” files. Selected randomly a dozen .pdf files and recovered them.
Many were 3.32MB (all exactly the same size) and are displaying “We can’t open this file. Something went wrong”.
Some others indeed show contents (a brochure and 2 scanned private letters).
Didn’t investigate any further.
This all being background of my post.
Could not figure out why Recuva nicely shows all Z’s and Partition Wizard was able to recover files, after wiping free space.
I’m the same as you, I have no idea other than yes the ZZZs would be small because they are only the filename/header, and perhaps finding the first ‘Zed-ed’ cluster.
But as you say; without further testing then ???
File recovery is always going to be hit and miss - by it’s very nature it’s a gamble at best.
Thanks.
Just for good order’s sake: did you use the Partition Wizard “Recover Data” tool?
If so, did you also have been able to recover large files (I mean, multiple MB’s files) and view the contents?
In my case the files are named like “Recovered_001.pdf” …002.pdf, etc. or .jpg/png.
Nope, never used it for that - I use Partition Wizard for partitioning tasks, I use a Recovery tool (Recuva) for recovery tasks.
