Recycle Bin

[whittling]

The way I understand it, with certain utilities, it is possible to recover "stuff" that has been deleted through the recycle bin. So this means, in my mind, that the "stuff" was not completely removed and is therefor still using space. How do I go about completely freeing the space that was once occupied by the "stuff"?

 

[zigzag3143]

The way I understand it, with certain utilities, it is possible to recover "stuff" that has been deleted through the recycle bin. So this means, in my mind, that the "stuff" was not completely removed and is therefor still using space. How do I go about completely freeing the space that was once occupied by the "stuff"?

Here is how it works

Stuff goes into recycling, when emptied the entry in the master boot record is removed, when something is written to disk it can be written into that sector as it appears empty.

You will always have stuff on the HD that is there but not listed. It doesnt matter if you were somehow able to clear it you would gain no more free space.

Ken

 

[whittling]

I had to read that very slow to understand it. So let me see if I understand this properly.

I can NOT, permanently remove "something" in the sense that that space is now like it was before that "something" was originally there. I CAN however, remove "something" and use that space again for something else?

 

[Jacee]

You could try this method How to Find a Recycle Bin in Computers' Hidden Files | eHow.com

 

[whittling]

You could try this method How to Find a Recycle Bin in Computers' Hidden Files | eHow.com

That method does not work for my OS. Also, I am not trying to restore removed files. I am trying to figure out how to clear up the space used by recycled, ghosts, if you will in an attempt to optimize my HDD/s.

 

[Victek]

The way I understand it, with certain utilities, it is possible to recover "stuff" that has been deleted through the recycle bin. So this means, in my mind, that the "stuff" was not completely removed and is therefor still using space. How do I go about completely freeing the space that was once occupied by the "stuff"?

Perhaps what you want is a utility that securely deletes files? What that means is after deleting a file the space it occupied on the hard drive is overwritten to make the file un-retrievable. Have a look at this:

How to securely delete files in Windows with Eraser (Win7 x64 included)

 

[marsmimar]

That method does not work for my OS. Also, I am not trying to restore removed files. I am trying to figure out how to clear up the space used by recycled, ghosts, if you will in an attempt to optimize my HDD/s.

Maybe this will help. Suppose you have a bookcase with several shelves. Shelf 1 is labeled "mysteries", shelf 2 "westerns", shelf 3 "sci-fi", etc. If you take all of the books off of shelf 1 and put them in your trash can, you've freed up the space. But the shelf is still labeled "mysteries" and maybe even has a piece of paper listing all the mystery books that were once on the shelf. But the space has been freed and is available for other books. Even though it is still labeled "mysteries" and has that piece of paper listing the titles, you can start filling up the shelf with other books. There's nothing more to clean.

Now suppose your hard drive has a section labeled "work projects" and you have a bunch of files and folders contained in that section relating to your work. If you remove all those files and folders by deleting "work projects", you have freed up that space. Even though the space might still be labeled "work projects" and even though there might be a list of what files and folders were in that space, there's nothing more to clean. The hard drive space is empty and eventually, as you add other files, folders, programs, word documents, photos, videos, etc they will fill up that empty space that used to be called "work projects".

If you use a secure deletion tool all it does is fill up the space with random zeros and ones. The space still has something in it (0s and 1s) but it is available for other data to occupy the freed up space. Whether the space contains the former data or 0s and 1s, they don't count against your available hard drive space.

 

[whittling]

That method does not work for my OS. Also, I am not trying to restore removed files. I am trying to figure out how to clear up the space used by recycled, ghosts, if you will in an attempt to optimize my HDD/s.

Maybe this will help. Suppose you have a bookcase with several shelves. Shelf 1 is labeled "mysteries", shelf 2 "westerns", shelf 3 "sci-fi", etc. If you take all of the books off of shelf 1 and put them in your trash can, you've freed up the space. But the shelf is still labeled "mysteries" and maybe even has a piece of paper listing all the mystery books that were once on the shelf. But the space has been freed and is available for other books. Even though it is still labeled "mysteries" and has that piece of paper listing the titles, you can start filling up the shelf with other books. There's nothing more to clean.

Now suppose your hard drive has a section labeled "work projects" and you have a bunch of files and folders contained in that section relating to your work. If you remove all those files and folders by deleting "work projects", you have freed up that space. Even though the space might still be labeled "work projects" and even though there might be a list of what files and folders were in that space, there's nothing more to clean. The hard drive space is empty and eventually, as you add other files, folders, programs, word documents, photos, videos, etc they will fill up that empty space that used to be called "work projects".

If you use a secure deletion tool all it does is fill up the space with random zeros and ones. The space still has something in it (0s and 1s) but it is available for other data to occupy the freed up space. Whether the space contains the former data or 0s and 1s, they don't count against your available hard drive space.

A helpful analogy, but I don't see how with this space be cleaned, how then can you retrieve what you deleted. Again, this is not what I want to do, you are answering in the direction I am going like zigzag. So, if the label is still on there, is that how I am able to retrieve the file? I have never recovered a deleted file before, do you get the whole thing back or only partial? If you get all of it, how is it possible you can have the space available once you delete it and still have it retrievable?

 

[Lomai]

Hi

Assuming that you have not written new content to the deleted drive sectors, and chances are that this may have been overwritten already dependent on the time period during which you had deleted the data you are after, have a look at the following thread:

Recovering deleted files

This thread may also provide some further clarification -

I need recover deleted files (with shift-del)

Hope this answers your query in some way

Regards

 

[Victek]

A helpful analogy, but I don't see how with this space be cleaned, how then can you retrieve what you deleted. Again, this is not what I want to do, you are answering in the direction I am going like zigzag. So, if the label is still on there, is that how I am able to retrieve the file? I have never recovered a deleted file before, do you get the whole thing back or only partial? If you get all of it, how is it possible you can have the space available once you delete it and still have it retrievable?

When you delete a file it can only be recovered if the space it occupies is not overwritten by new data. Since the space is marked "available" after deletion it can be overwritten at any time. For that reason there's no way to know if it can be recovered. It's only "possible" because the file is not immediately overwritten when deleted.

 

[whittling]

When you delete a file it can only be recovered if the space it occupies is not overwritten by new data. Since the space is marked "available" after deletion it can be overwritten at any time. For that reason there's no way to know if it can be recovered. It's only "possible" because the file is not immediately overwritten when deleted.

Perfect, I understand. So in Marsmimar's analogy, you can put the books right back on the shelf so long as you haven't put something else in that space. Thanks for everyone's help. +reps!

 

[marsmimar]

A helpful analogy, but I don't see how with this space be cleaned, how then can you retrieve what you deleted. Again, this is not what I want to do, you are answering in the direction I am going like zigzag. So, if the label is still on there, is that how I am able to retrieve the file? I have never recovered a deleted file before, do you get the whole thing back or only partial? If you get all of it, how is it possible you can have the space available once you delete it and still have it retrievable?

Well, I'm not an expert so this is what I understand things to be. When you delete something from the hard drive the space it occupied is made available for use so other data can occupy (over-write) the original data. The original data is still occupying that space but (a) it does not count against your available hard drive space and (b) nobody can access the data by the usual methods because it no longer appears in your start menu, windows explorer, any of your files and folders, etc.

I guess what it all boils down to is once data is on a hard drive, it will remain on the drive until it is replaced with some other data. And even then, it might be possible to recover enough of the original data with specialized recovery tools. Maybe this article about the best way to erase a hard drive will explain the mechanics better than I can.

 

[sulamaz]

You may also want to consider a disk cleanup if you constantly are loading and deleting files on your computer. Its pretty simple to use, just be careful of what you allow it to cleanup. You can access it at >start > all programs > accessories > system tools > disk cleanup.

Delete files using Disk Cleanup

sorry disk defragmentor. basically what it does is rearrange all of your data so you dont have "pockets" of unused space. found in the same spot as above except its disk defrag instead of cleanup.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defragmentation

the gif in the wiki is the easiest way to explain it