Securely deleting items from recycle bin

[Zoloft]

Just a curiosity/paranoia question, that I have no doubt someone (brink?) knows the answer to.

I am aware when you move an item to the recycle bin and delete it, you are not actually removing the data written to your drive, simply removing the location from the index. So, my question is kinda twofold:

When moving a file to the recycle bin, does windows actually write a second copy of the data in another location, ie, the recycle bin, or does it simply change the location of the item in the index, from it's original location, to the recycle bin.

Secondly, assuming that there is no second location written, the index location has simply changed, when securely deleting the recycle bin, with an app such as eraser or ccleaner, is the data actually overwritten in it's original location, or, because it was "recycled" before it was deleted, is it still in tact in it's original location?

Paranoia I'm sure, but curious none the less. . .

Thanks for all your geniuses!

 

[Layback Bear]

If you use Ccleaner go to lower left and check wipe free space and run a scan. It will clean $Recycle Bin. It will take a while.

 

[Britton30]

You can use CCleaner to delete the files in the Recycle bin by over writing. The bin simply removes a file's pointer so it is recognized as free and available space. You don't need to wipe free space to clean the bin, set it to Secure deletion as shown.

 

[Layback Bear]

Britton I was referring to $Recycle Bin not Recycle Bin. Does you method clean $Recycle Bin?

 

[indianacarnie]

I use East-Tec Eraser to wipe my free space about once a month. Keeps my machine "peppy" and clean.

I'm not 100% sure but have always thought that when you recycled something you just removed the address's from the locations so they are not findable. I dont think anything "extra" is written. Remember that when you delete something you MAY still have copies of the data in other locations though i.e. system restore points, backups etc.

 

[Oaken]

Zoloft, this article gives some detailed information concerning how these files are handled, etc.

Recycle Bin Forensics in Windows 7 and Vista

 

[Nigsy]

I know this does't answer the question but I use this:

CyLog Software - CyberShredder

I does several passes writing random ones and zeros, effectively removing the all important 'space' left behind.

 

[Britton30]

Britton I was referring to $Recycle Bin not Recycle Bin. Does you method clean $Recycle Bin?

Good point. I'm not sure if the normal cleaning pass does, but the Wipe Free Space option will. It takes a long time, overwriting ALL free drive space.

 

[carwiz]

You sure don't want to do that if the disk is an SSD. You can seriously degrade the performance of the drive. Might even trash the drive since it will "think" there's no available space for TRIM or garbage collection.

 

[James Colbert]

You sure don't want to do that if the disk is an SSD. You can seriously degrade the performance of the drive. Might even trash the drive since it will "think" there's no available space for TRIM or garbage collection.

I agree. The extra writes may well degrade or 'wear' an SSD, but the "space" you refer to is still designated as free space in the index, it's just replaced the unaddressed data with other unadressed data.

James

 

[karlsnooks]

Just a curiosity/paranoia question, that I have no doubt someone (brink?) knows the answer to.

I am aware when you move an item to the recycle bin and delete it, you are not actually removing the data written to your drive, simply removing the location from the index. So, my question is kinda twofold:

When moving a file to the recycle bin, does windows actually write a second copy of the data in another location, ie, the recycle bin, or does it simply change the location of the item in the index, from it's original location, to the recycle bin.

Secondly, assuming that there is no second location written, the index location has simply changed, when securely deleting the recycle bin, with an app such as eraser or ccleaner, is the data actually overwritten in it's original location, or, because it was "recycled" before it was deleted, is it still in tact in it's original location?

Paranoia I'm sure, but curious none the less. . .

Thanks for all your geniuses!

Another approach:
Undelete from the recycle bin.
This is just to make referencing the file to be securely deleted easy to reference.

Now use SDELETE from the SysInternals folks.

SDelete

 

[carwiz]

I think you are thinking of Windows' TRIM command to the disk after a delete. You're most likely more correct than I but it's my understanding that the firmware on SSDs is nothing like that of HDDs. Data can move on the SSD outside of the control of the OS. Many of the new SSD drives have self-initiated garbage collection (GC) that doesn't know the difference between real data and data written as "zeros". Data is data to the SSD.

 

[karlsnooks]

welcome to Win 7 where the operating system is much smarter than that of XP or any linux variant.
SSD - Support and Q&A

 

[Britton30]

You sure don't want to do that if the disk is an SSD. You can seriously degrade the performance of the drive. Might even trash the drive since it will "think" there's no available space for TRIM or garbage collection.

Yup, that's right. I think the TRIM operations will take care of any free space.