How to securely erase files and folders

CCleaner for Windows
1

How can I use CCleaner to securely erase files and folders?

2

Hi churin, and welcome to the forum.

Have a read here regarding what CCleaner offers for secure deletion.

(Scroll down to: "To change CCleaner's deletion method:")

Many of us on the forum think "Simple Overwrite (1 pass)", would do the job.

CCleaner has the ability to include custom files to delete and folders to empty. You can find the information here.

Cheers

3

Hi, Jamin4u;

Thank you for your response.

While doing what you suggested, I noticed "Wipe Free Space drives". What is done by this and what am I supposed to do to have it done?

4

The information on Wipe Free Space can be found here.

Augeas just posted some good info on Wipe Free Space in this post.

There's a lot of good info at the link below, please take the time to familiarize yourself with CCleaner.

You'll find a search function at the top of the forum page where you can find previously asked questions.

Post back if you have any more questions.

5
Many of us on the forum think "Simple Overwrite (1 pass)", would do the job.

Meh I almost always use the 35 pass Peter Gutman routine since i usually don't have enough files for it to make a significant difference in how long it takes but that's just paranoid old me.

6
i usually don't have enough files for it to make a significant difference in how long it takes

But it makes a significant difference on the amount of wear on your disk, about 35 time more significant ;)

7

Whats the difference between "Normal File Deletion" and "One-Pass Secure File Deletion" ?

Does normal file deletion use no passes at all? Is this the technique Windows would normally use if you just deleted a file from your P.C?

Also are these settings related to when we actually click the "Run Cleaner" button on the Cleaner tab.

8

Normal deletion is indeed the same as a shift/del in Windows, and the chosen setting applies to the files deleted when Run Cleaner is pressed.

9
Whats the difference between "Normal File Deletion" and "One-Pass Secure File Deletion" ?

Does normal file deletion use no passes at all? Is this the technique Windows would normally use if you just deleted a file from your P.C?

What you must realise is when you delete a file form windows all Windows does is erase thet entry from the index - not the hard drive. The file is still there just you cannot see it. It will be eventurally over written but in the mean time it's still recoverable.

From what i believe in over written files, and some one please correct me if im wrong is, to over write a file a application would need to do something like this.

Get the size of the file in bytes

Open the file for writing

For each byte in the file:

Write a random byte

End For

Delete the file.

So one over write would write each byte of the file one time with random data. No lab or any where has claimed that they can recover one over write, so i would never bother with 35 passes. as said above, it adds alot of strain to your hd.

10

Thanks for the information guys!