How to completely remove files and file names?

[flyintheointment]

Hello, i am a newbie Recuva user and have found it excellent in finding accidentally deleted files. However when i did a deep scan i came across 18,000 temp files with the majority of those having been overwritten and unrecoverable, although the file name is still observable. I wanted those files (and names) completely removed, so, after right clicking on the list view and "the secure overwrite" option a window said "clicking yes will mean they are gone forever". I did this but no files were overwritten, no matter if i checked all 18,000 files, 80 or just 8. Can somebody please tell me what it is I am missing here?

[Augeas]

Do you mean that Recuva said that no files were overwritten, or that they were overwritten but the file names were still there?

 

You will still see the same number of deleted files after securely overwriting as before. Secure overwrite is just that: there is no way that any data can be deleted or removed from a disk.

 

When overwriting a file with Recuva the file name is not overwritten. Either the file name remains in the MFT, or in the case of a deep scan (where the file name is not in the MFT) the file name seems in the main to be retained in the file header (I an not running a deep scan to test this).

 

You could try running Wipe Free Space with Wipe MFT ticked. This will overwrite all of your spare disk space and all free entries in the MFT. You will still see file names with Recuva, but they will be meaningless.