Secure Delete function NOTpresent

Recuva
1

Recuva 1.46.919 on Win xp SP3

Greetings,

I have run the program umpteen times with all the various settings available, yet have never once seen the

"secure delete checked" nor "secure delete highlighted" option offered in right-click drop-down menu of ANY file listed after a scan.

I have searched Google and Piriform Help for any kind of explanation as to why this is so, alas to no avail!

Piriform Help constantly references these two options in its various "how to's" directives on their main Recuva page, yet I can't find them.

I am totally frustrated by this situation.

PLEASE, can someone out there shed some light on this issue

TIA

2

Hi kokoloco, and welcome to Piriform.

I don't have a "Limited Account" on my XP machine to see if these options are missing for that reason, but on those lines, are you running Recuva from an Administrator Account?

3

Thanks dennisd for your reply.

I am, always have been the ONLY user of this pc.

So yes, I am an Administrator.

One step at the time, this issue will be resolved, I believe.

cheers

4

These should be available after you've placed a checkmark/tickbox on a file and/or highlighted a file:

21aca0200f21a8fc97a69f61cdd7b79d.png

5

Koko, are you saying that the two options are there but always greyed out, or that they're not there at all?

6

In response to Andavari and Augeas:

Firstly, whether a single file or multiple files are either checked and/or highlighted, the results are identical, ie:

Absolutely NO presence of the "DELETE" option in the drop-down menu????

Secondly, if a file is highlighted, here's the exact text of the right-click drop-down menu, in ascending order:

--------------------------------------------------------

-Recover Highlighted...

-Recover Checked...(greyed out)

--------------------------------------------------------

-Check Highlighted

-Uncheck Highlighted (greyed out)

--------------------------------------------------------

-Highlight Folder

-Sort by...

--------------------------------------------------------

-View mode

--------------------------------------------------------

-Secure Overwrite Highlighted

-Secure Overwrite Checked (greyed out)

--------------------------------------------------------

-Copy Image to Clipboard

--------------------------------------------------------

-Save List to Text File...

--------------------------------------------------------

If a file is checked, the (greyed-out) options become available.

Hope this helps. Thank you both, your input is appreciated.

7

Recuva documentation shows under "Using Recuva > Advanced Mode > Securely overwriting your files"

To securely overwrite files:

1. Run Recuva in Advanced or in Wizard mode.

2. In the results window, select the files you want to securely overwrite.

3. Right-click the list and click Secure Overwrite Checked.

4. You are prompted to confirm the deletion. Click Yes.

Warning: You cannot recover files once they have been securely overwritten.

Secure Overwrite means the same as Secure Delete.

i.e. this is what you are looking for

--------------------------------------------------------

-Secure Overwrite Highlighted

-Secure Overwrite Checked (greyed out)

--------------------------------------------------------

8

Quite interesting response Alan_B and I thank you for it.

However, IMHO there's a clear distinction between secure overwrite and secure delete albeit producing almost

the same result.

Without getting into semantics, this is how I interpret each one:

In the first instance, the file is overwritten (as it's supposed to be) but the filename is still visible.

In the second instance, both the file and it's name are destroyed/shredded and should entirely disappear.

Having said this, let me point you to another Piriform page titled: "Secure file deletion".

http://www.piriform....e-file-deletion

Please take note of #3 line, near the bottom of that page, as it clearly states that a "Secure Delete Checked" option should exist, don't you think?

Maybe Piriform considers both delete and overwrite as freely interchangeable words?

Any additional comments would be most welcome.

regards

9

IMHO there's a clear distinction between secure overwrite and secure delete

There is to me too.

The right-click menu only shows those two Secure Overwrite options which are in the screenshot I posted. Looks like it's just a word error where someone has written the wrong word in the documentation that could confuse people because where they have written in the "Secure Delete" doesn't exist in the program because it instead displays "Secure Overwrite".

Edit:

I'll tell an Admin about this topic, so they'll know there's an error in the Recuva docs.

10

However, IMHO there's a clear distinction between secure overwrite and secure delete albeit producing almost

the same result.

Without getting into semantics, this is how I interpret each one:

In the first instance, the file is overwritten (as it's supposed to be) but the filename is still visible.

In the second instance, both the file and it's name are destroyed/shredded and should entirely disappear.

Having said this, let me point you to another Piriform page titled: "Secure file deletion".

http://www.piriform....e-file-deletion

Please take note of #3 line, near the bottom of that page, as it clearly states that a "Secure Delete Checked" option should exist, don't you think?

Maybe Piriform considers both delete and overwrite as freely interchangeable words?

Any additional comments would be most welcome.

regards

You should have explained in your title that you disagreed with the description of secure overwrite.

Three moderators and I have wasted some effort in considering what could have removed the Secure Overwrite options from your context menu.

Personally I think that most people with your command of English would have no difficulty understanding the probable (near) equivalence of the two terms.

So far as Recuva documentation is concerned, whilst I agree that in some aspects it is incomplete, it does stipulate

http://www.piriform....ting-your-files

Notes:

  • You cannot securely overwrite recovered emails from the results window. See this topic for more explanation.
  • Secure overwrite does not affect file names, which continue to exist in the MFT (Master File Table). In order to overwrite names of deleted files, please use the Wipe MFT Free Space option in CCleaner.

11

As mentioned by Alan, a little more clarity in the initial description of the problem would have helped a lot, but we got there in the end, and as Andavari is pointing the devs to this thread hopefully some change may be affected to avoid any possible future confusion to others.

12

Alan no one has wasted any time or effort with new member kokoloco. In my opinion it has been time well spent.

The documentation is confusing and needs to have a couple of word changes. Andavari has flagged it up to Piriform.

Let's not make new members feel their input is not valued, we want to keep members not discourage them Alan.

13

First and foremost, I'd like to thank each and everyone for their contribution, time and effort in helping to clarify this issue. I would also like to apologize to the moderators and members who felt that my original post lacked clarity and I humbly accept their mild rebuke for doing so. My intentions were to elicit a plausible response as to why, according to Piriform's documentation, I was not offered the "Secure Delete" option in my version of Recuva. Hence the title of my post.

At the end of the day, I feel somewhat gratified at the end result of it all.!

Thanks Andavari for detecting the "word slip-up" in Piriform's texts.

Hazelnut, thanks for your kind words.

Godspeed to all,

Peace

14

Sorry, I do not wish to discourage a new member,

But Andavari carefully highlighted in post #4 the Secure OverWrite options in the context menu which clearly indicates the he (and I) consider this to meet the stated need for a Delete Function.

The answer in post #6 focussed upon highlighted and checked files and greyed out options, and might have been an appropriate place to state

"IMHO there's a clear distinction between secure overwrite and secure delete".

Only when we get to post #8 do we find the issue appears to be more to do with documentation than with the loss of a context menu option.

Personally I find it disappointing to start investigating a technical problem that is actually a documentation issue.

I do however agree that the documentation needs updating.

I believe that in all sections which relate to secure overwrite/ secure delete, it should refer to the need to Wipe the MFT Free Space to purge the names.

It is quite probable that the documentation was fully accurate when created because Recuva context options may have read "Secure Delete",

and at some time the context options were corrected to "Secure Overwrite",

and the Piriform developers were too busy updating free software to keep the documentation in step.

I strongly recommend that the Context Menu itself should include some WIPE MFT hint for the benefit of the many who never read documentation. :)

Alan