Newbie Help (have already read FAQ)

Hello! I went through the FAQs page, and I'm thinking these items were not completely covered, and need some guidance please.

I ran the scan using Gutmann and deep scan enabled. It pulled up a lot of files (a lot with connected to app data in temp /Local/Temp, backup.rdb, emalware (attached to a plug in), internet logs to be deleted, etc). I have heard you need to be smart what you erase or you could severely affect your system and browsing capability. My problem is that I don't know what should be deleted and what shouldn't. For instance, I would want to delete the internet history and logs (could not find index.dat as one of the files it looked for, and I thought that was what I should delete), but I wouldn't want to delete anything that would cripple the functionality of my computer and/or applications I use. I'm really just trying to securely clean up any extra junk that is left on my computer that can build up (internet logs, cached items, logs that are not important). Any way to know what to delete?

Also, when I right click an item, all I see id the secure overwrite option, no secure delet option. I had read that this function was combined. Is that true; does the overwrite work as effectively as the secure delete option?

Thank you!

Everything that Recuva lists (unless you have ticked the Show Undeleted Files option) will already be deleted, as far as Windows is concerned. Nothing you can do to these files will affect Windows operation. You can secure overwrite as many of them as you wish (but please, one pass only, especially as you are runing deep scan and will perhaps be overwriting many deleted files).

A secure delete is a secure overwrite. Nothing can ever be deleted from a disk, you can only write to it. (OK, and read of course.) A secure delete, or a wipe, or erase, or whatever, is writing junk on top of valid data.

When you run a secure overwrite (I don't think there is such a thing as an insecure overwrite) Recuva will still list the file names, some of them anyway. That is because Recuva does not and can not alter the contents of the Master File Table. The clusters containing the data will be overwritten but the file names etc. will remain in the MFT. The MFT filenames can be overwritten using CCleaner's Wipe Free Space option with Wipe MFT ticked.

PS Most of this does not apply to SSD's.

Thank you for the info. So everything that it pulled up would be safe to "overwrite", correct?

Also, What about the index.dat file that contains history? I presume it didn't pick it up because it wasn't a deleted file, so how do I find those files and overwrite them using Recuva without having to scan all undeleted files (which would then combine everything and make overwriting a very complex adventure?

Lastly, what exactly is an SSD that you say does not apply?

Thanks again, love the program (and CC Wipe), and looking forward to donating next month when commissions come in. Best of luck!

You can't use Recuva to overwrite undeleted files, so it isn't quite such an adventure. You can use CCleaner to delete or clean Index.dat files. An SSD is a solid state device, a flash drive.