Cannot overwrite deleted emails on free space

see below

Mayve wiping free space in safe mode is possible and it should release any lock on the file.

I'll try it to see if it's even possible and post the results.

Well you're showing two different users for some reason:

C:\Users\Tommy>C:\Windows\System32\sdelete -p -1 -z -c C:

C:\Users\Sabrina>C:\Windows\System32\sdelete -p -1 -z -c C:

Those paths look wrong anyway!

In any case what you should be doing is using the account for the Thunderbird user and going to

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe then right click cmd.exe and choose run as administrator.

Then in the window that appears it should automatically open at:

C:\Windows\System32

just add sdelete -p -1 -z -c C: then press enter.

Safe mode tested, free space on drive C wiped - no problem.



The documentation from Recuva and Piriform isn't well put together.

My understanding of it is that the file is created by Recuva. It does not get created on my machine - I've tested using Recuva using the recover deleted emails option. That's because there are no deleted emails stored in Thunderbird databases to be recovered. Your setup is different.

I have used software "Comodo Time Machine" in the past that wrote it's files in a special way into free space. Uninstalling the software deleted the files. Recuva seems to be using a simiilar technique to store that deleted emails.zip file.

Try the safe mode wipe.

Are you 100% sure that Recuva reports that the file's status is deleted?

How about trying this as a test:

Navigate to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

Replace USERNAME with the account name.

Create another backup folder on your desktop and Copy Profiles and profiles.ini into it.

Then try deleting both "Profiles and profiles.ini" from C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird and if they delete successfuly go into the backup folder that you just made then try going into the Profiles folder then into your profile and try deleting the zip file from there.

If it works restore the files back to their original location:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird

Then run Thunderbird and adjust the following:

Compact all folders.

Tools> Options> Advanced> Network & Disk Space:



Tools> Account Settings> Synchronization & Storage:



Click the advanced tab and ensure that trash remains unchecked.



That should hopefully prevent the same problem happening in future.

You have twice stated that Sdelete remains on 0% and reports:

Zeroing free space on C:\: 0%

What it should read is:

Zeroing free space on C:\ 0%

You seem to have typed an extra : in the command line?

Just a thought but perhaps try running Recuva with the recover deleted emails option one more time once you've cleaned up Thunderbird just to see if it creates a new zip file!

The last option that I can think of is that if that file was created recently try rolling back your system using system restore to a point before you recovered those emails then scan again.

Other than that I'm out of ideas. Maybe another member will have other suggestions!