Only using secure deletion affects recycle bin

[jongleur]

Hi, under Vista Home Basic, on a Dell Dimension E520, with multiple user accounts set-up (at least one each of Administrator and normal user if not more), with UAC enabled, I have the following problem:

 

I use CCleaner, and it does its thing.

I then leave all settings the same, except enabling 7-pass secure deletion in the settings.

It then, even though I have JUST 'cleaned' everything, takes AGES to 7-pass clean a load of things that it 'suddenly noticed' in the recycle bin. I'm talking about large avi files, as well as general deleted stuff. So one notices what it's doing very clearly. I repeated this as an experiment and it continued to have the same replicable issue.

I must be getting naive in my old age - I thought CCleaner was solid software...

Any clues? This machine HAS had malware detected on it multiple times, but IS protected somewhat (it's not mine, I don't have access to it that often, so please comprehensive suggestions not 'try x number of things at random' answers, thanks a lot!)

[hazelnut]

Does this still happen if you reboot after the first 'clean'?

[Augeas]

I'm not sure about UAC, does this not restrict all users to non-admin status?

 

The recycler is handled differently in Vista from XP. The files are renamed in a different manner, each deleted file being represented by a $I and $R file. I would have expected CC to have grasped that by now. What you see shown in the recyler is not what is held on disk, but filename and other data extracted from the $I files.

 

I can only guess how CC securely deletes files in the recycler. I also guess that in the case of live files it overwrites the file according to the secure delete setting, renames it to ZZZ.ZZZ, and then deletes it. Can CC simply access the recycler directories and delete the files, as they are not deleted in the usual sense of the word, but just hidden from casual view?

 

I would expect large files to take ages to overwrite seven times. That's a lot of writing. The time can be reduced to one seventh by just overwriting once, or to a negligible amount by chosing normal deletion. I would ask whether these files are that sensitive to require such measures.

 

I don't know why a normal delete apparently clears the recycler and the files are found with the secure delete option. It would help to have a blow by blow account of the operation. Does the normal delete analyse say in the info window that the files are to be deleted? (I don't know if CC just lists the recycler or whether it lists each file.) Did the recycler show as empty after the normal delete? Did the info window show nothing to delete after the normal delete, and then show files in the recycler after you changed the options?