Privacy Question

[Vicliving]

Hi, I'm really truly sorry if this sounds like a ridiculous question, but as I am the type to get very paranoid I just really want to ask this. Basically, I'm wondering if anyone other than myself can view or easily obtain any of the files that I recover or securely delete? I ask because I've securely deleted some sensitive files using Recuva, but now I'm slightly worried that it was an unsafe thing to do.

 

I know Recuva is a trusted, credible program but I'm hoping some of the more expert users can set my mind at ease.

 

Thank you in advance.

[Augeas]

Anyone who has access to your pc can, by using an installed version of Recuva or a portable version on a usb drive, see all the deleted files on all the drives that you can see.

 

What you seem to be asking is whether the securely deleted files can be recovered by anyone. The securely deleted data cannot be recovered by anyone. The file name, size, folder info etc will remain visible as that is held in the file tables which are not accessible by Recuva.

 

Bear in mind that Recuva (and CC) will securely overwrite the specific data that the entry in the file table is pointing to. There may be other copies on the disk from edits, defrags and other operations.

 

Certain small files, less than 1k, may be held entirely in the file tables and cannot be securely deleted with Recuva.

[Andavari]

You can NOT be sure if there's other parts of the file elsewhere so against better judgment perhaps wipe the free space with perhaps CCleaner, but still even that's no guarantee parts of the file(s) couldn't be restored.

[Vicliving]

Thank you to both of you for help. In reply to both of your answers, is there any way that these parts of files that could potentially be left over could be restored without sitting down in front of my pc and actually searching for them? What I basically mean is, could my files somehow be leaked by the program (I know I sound stupid) or could someone I don't know over the internet somehow find these files? Though I don't think a hacker would waste their time on me, I do get extremely anxious about these things.

Thanks!

[Andavari]

Unlikely unless your hard disk was sent to a forensic lab for investigating, which is very highly unlikely and also profoundly expensive.

[amhoyle]

I've tried secure deleting with CCleaner and Recuva. It seems to work. However recently I discovered another free tool called Eraser which seems to also do a good job and is perhaps more suited to the task. It's quite an advanced tool to be used with care but is dedicated to secure deleting files and free disk space.

 

http://eraser.heidi.ie/