I ran Recuva and found thousands of jpeg files, they're all small icons and stuff from internet sites. I want to permanently delete them. Is there any possible way?
I ran Recuva and found thousands of jpeg files, they're all small icons and stuff from internet sites. I want to permanently delete them. Is there any possible way?
Select the file(s) to be deleted. Click 'Options...' If one cicks on the 'Advanced' tab of the 'Options' Dialog Box (which appears when one clicks 'Options...') there is a field labelled 'Secure deletion.' In my opinion one should use the Combo Box to select the deletion method one desires for the selected file(s). Clicking 'OK' should then permanently remove the selected file(s). Unfortunately, THIS DOES NOT WORK!!!
Please look at St B's other post for a response to his comments.
You can delete all the files in one go by first trimming the file list by entering Pictures in the file name or Path box. You can then select all of them with the tick box at the top of the file list, or perhaps select a few thousand at a time, and then right click and select the Secure Delete Checked entry.
If there are tens of thousands Recuva might choke, so I would advise doing it in more manageable portions. Remember that Recuva will not delete small files held in the MFT, and will not remove or rename the file names.
well, this delete does not work - after deleting files and rescanning, they are still there. it would be so nice to clean that trash away for good. basicly, quick cleaning of "FAT" would be the best...
(?)
Remember that Recuva will not delete small files held in the MFT, and will not remove or rename the file names.
I don't know what you guys are doing. In all the years I have run Recuva it has never shown or found a file that was not already deleted.
Hank, all those file names are irritating, but it's how Windows works. On a hard drive you can never actually 'clean' anything or go back to a previous state, only keep writing more and more stuff on top of what's already there. If you want a day's amusement seeing lots of file names try a deep scan.
I don't know what you guys are doing. In all the years I have run Recuva it has never shown or found a file that was not already deleted.
Hank, all those file names are irritating, but it's how Windows works. On a hard drive you can never actually 'clean' anything or go back to a previous state, only keep writing more and more stuff on top of what's already there. If you want a day's amusement seeing lots of file names try a deep scan.
oh no, no more trash and dust...!
so those days in MS-DOS era are gone for good, when real cleaning was possible... (?)
Nothing wrong with mainframes, in my opinion, with proper man-sized operating systems.
Even if you could clear all those filenames out of the MFT, the files would still be lying there on the disk.............. some for decades, aeons, forever...........
I came here thinking I have a possible solution for some folks. BTW, it would be nice to add a small blurb to the Recuva write up mentioning this.
Windows Defrag moves crap around all over the disk, and while it is at it, it rebuilds the FAT. Know that, also, (invisible) files that have been tagged as deleted are permanently trashed during defrag. Likewise, Recuva nor anyone else can recover deleted files after doing a Windows Defrag.
I should also mention that -- although it rarely happens today -- When a disk is essentially full, space containing deleted files will be overwritten, right up to the point that Windows cannot find enough "empty" space for a file-write attempt. That's when you get terse message that the disk is full.
Know also that my knowledge is contemporary only up until Windows 98SE. What happens to NTFS files during defrag with WinXP or Vista is beyond my experience. I not only don't know, I don't even want to know. My LAST upgrade is to Win98SE. And that's as far as I'm going.
BTW, I installed Recuva on four machines yesterday. It's beautiful! Very professionally done. My compliments to you all for a fine program.
Unfortunately Win98SE users must be in a minority now, even I eventually migrated to XP.
The MFT - the file table used by NTFS - never gets rid of a filename entry. 'When files are deleted from an NTFS volume, their MFT entries are marked as free and may be reused, but the MFT does not shrink. Thus, space used by these entries is not reclaimed from the disk.' That's from Microsoft. Also defragging a volume may cause live files to overwrite deleted files, but will not change anything in the MFT. The MFT zone includes space for the MFT to expand contiguously, so defragging would be irrelevant. In the rare case where there are a vast number of user files (millions) the MFT can expand from the MFT zone into user space, but will not be reclaimed on a defrag.
I forgot to mention the MFT mirror, but so did eveyone else. With all this complexity, and the massively critical status of the MFT (and its mirror), I doubt whether Piriform will ever risk clearing out deleted file names from the MFT. After all Microsoft can't do it, and it gains very little.