Secure Erase software needed?

Hello badspell,

If you like, the free program CCleaner can do all of that for you. Here's what the Secure Deletion settings in CCleaner look like for you to set how you like.



Hope this helps. :)

Secure Erase is the feature that overwrites the space of the deleted items by how many passes you select. The more passes you select the less likely it can be recovered, but the longer it will take to overwrite.

I'm not sure if it's the best, but it's free and will do the job quite well. :)

Hi,

I find that adding CCEnhancer to Ccleaner gives better functionality. Also I get better results by running additional cleaners like BleachBit, System Ninja and PrivaZer. The problem is that unless you know what you want to delete - they can be a little aggressive.

I sometimes use D7 to delete temp files as shown in the screenshot.

Another method is to open an elevated command prompt like this:

Elevated Command Prompt

Then enter the following:

cd \windows

(press enter)

Del *.tmp /s /f /q

(press enter)

Switches explained:
/s: delete specified files from all subdirectories.
/f: force deleting of read-only files.
/q: quiet mode that doesn’t ask if ok to delete on wildcards.


It's a good idea to make a backup or system restore point first.

As for secure deletion you could try Sdelete from SysInternals. It need to be run from the command prompt like this:

sdelete -p 1 -z -c C

where C is the drive letter for the drive that you wish to wipe deleted files from.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897443.aspx