Security Risk Relying on CCleaner Secure Overwrite

CCleaner does not do what it promises to securely overwrite files in the recycle bin. If you are relying on it to obliterate your deleted files such that only the NSA can recover them then think again !

I have been using CCleaner for years under the mistaken belief that once it was run on the Recycle Bin and set to secure over write three passes in the settings things would be properly and securely deleted from all but the most experienced prying eyes. However I obtained a very basic freebie software program and ran it to scour the recycle bin after twice supposedly securely erasing the Bin on a secure erase, three times overwrite I was able to find hundreds of files in various recovery states. The most disappointing aspect was that filenames and extensions were still clearly visible such as avi, jpg and torrent files.

I will now be looking for a cleaner that does in fact do what it promises.

Don't forget the MFT can spoil actually getting rid of some files, and the security software you have installed can also impact if secure deletion will actually work.

I personally never rely upon file secure deletion (gave up on that long ago, takes way too much time for daily usage) and instead have CCleaner do a Wipe Free Space with Wipe MFT Free Space enabled which for me is very effective since nothing is recoverable or left-over when using recovery software.

I will now be looking for a cleaner that does in fact do what it promises.

And please report back if you manage to find one that can't then be recovered by some program.

If you can find file data after it's been overwritten then either it hasn't been overwritten or you're looking at something else.

There's not really enough info here. The OP should run some controlled tests, if he or she is still interested.

The secure delete recycler process is not well enough known - to me. Does CC recover the files, overwrite them, rename them, then delete them, or use some more tricksy method? I think it must use the former method, to get rid of those MFT-resident files.

see also here:

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=40982

Post back how it goes if you have time. :)