What does Secure File Deletion (slower) really do?

CCleaner for Windows
1

Hi there,

I just wanted to know what happens when you do the secure file deletion NSA Overwrite (7 pass)???

I ran cclean on that setting and it took sometime so i stopped over 7 bars passed (note - you'll understand that i mean when you do it) and it shows that i deleted over 815 mb of something...

If someone can just please give me a straight forward answer to what each Secure Deletion 1/3/7 pass do.

Thanks a lot...sorry if i dont make sence this is a new language for me.

2

When it uses normal file deletion, it uses the normal file deletion method that Windows use when deleting a file. The same as when you delete a file yourself. Which doesnt really *erase* the file, it just makes it disappear, but its still there hidden in the filesystem.

When you use secure file deletion, it overwrites the file with random data to prevent recovery of deleted files.

So basically secure file deletion makes it more difficult to recover data, but it takes longer time todo since it has to overwrite files.