I found some images using recuva that were possible to be recovered. I however noticed that they were made up of
-images from websites I had viewed (but not downloaded images from) such as Google maps (mostly sat images I had viewed recently).
-images from games I had uninstalled
So in both cases I had run a 35 pass delete on the "run cleaner" option but obviously these files were not saved on my computer as such. Is there anyway to delete these files permanently so they and future images like these are removed without any possible recovery?
Is this what the "wipe free space" option does?
Why arnt these being picked up in the original delete?
Does cleaner delete things that have been deleted historically by the standard windows methods? Thanks
Yes, run Wipe Free Space one pass only. When you look at an image on a website it is downloaded to your pc. It's difficult to know why secure deletion didn't overwrite these files. Yes, CC overwrites all free space whatever it contains.
Later edit: Recuva will show some deleted files - even after a WFS - with a preview, and they can be recovered. This happens when the clusters a deleted file previously occupied are subsequently used by a live file. The entry for the deleted file in the file table points to the same clusters as the live file. WFS will not overwrite these clusters, as indeed it shouldn't.
If said images were small in size they could reside in the MFT area, hence the reason they couldn't be dealt with. In any case use Wipe Free Space, and then after that verify with Recuva.