Secure Delete of Index Files

CCleaner for Windows
1

Does Secure Delete work for the Index files that are only deleted upon reboot?

2

I dont know about that...

3

I dont know about that...

It is a very important question don't you think? Let us all hope someone knows...

4

It is a very important question don't you think? Let us all hope someone knows...

Quite honestly, I would doubt it - it is using MS to delete the entries - they are in

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager ==> PendingFileRenameoperations

so it's up the the OS

So the answer is proabably no ! sorry.

B.

5

Thanks burtman--no need to be sorry! However this spotlights a very large hole in the Secure Delete feature for IE users.

I hope the developers will add this to the FAQs and any where else they discuss the Secure Delete feature or IE's index.dat files.

Is there a workaround that will securely delete or obsecure the old index.dat files?

6

Is there a workaround that will securely delete or obsecure the old index.dat files?

You could shred them with Cyber Shredder, but others here know other programs that used secure delete.

There are some suggestions in this thread.

http://forum.ccleaner.com/index.php?showtopic=3858&hl=passes

Hope this helps!

7

You could shred them with Cyber Shredder, but others here know other programs that used secure delete.

/quote]

Thanks, but I don't think that the Index.dat files can be directly deleted with Cyber Shredder or Eraser or other secure deletions programs because the Index.dat files are constantly in use by the OS and thus can't not be accessed. This is why CCleaner marks them for deletion by the OS upon the next reboot as discussed by bertman above. [Please let me know if my assumption is wrong!]

Of course, wiping/shredding the file slacks and free space after a reboot deletion would most likely take care of the problem, but I'm hoping for a more elegant and less time consumming fix.

This is a very large secure delete hole and I hope the CCleaner developers can come up with a fix OR at least boldly alert users of this limitation.

8

Would be a great feature if CCleaner have the same index.dat delete of Unlocker.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

9

Would be a great feature if CCleaner have the same index.dat delete of Unlocker.

It does.

They all delete the index.dat the same method.

Unlocker cannot resolve locking issues with index.dat - it can solve issues with other files.

Only reboot can solve index.dat situations.