Making deleted files irretrievable

[fred_fish]

A single pass 'zero-write' is all you need, unless your recipient has some very expensive forensic data recovery equipment and a lot of expertise and spare time.

[1101]

Mmm! Am hoping that there is an app that I could safely use to just get rid of all deleted items, without having to re-install the software?

As mentioned CCleaner will do it (easy peasy).
You need to be 100% sure you've deleted all data FIRST , some data may be hidden ( or at least hard to find, eg email database or archive files , internet cache , user tmp files etc )

Make sure no passwords are saved in you browsers (reset them)
Make a new user a/c with admin rights . Then delete the original user a/c . Then delete your original a/c's folder in C:\users . That should get rid of most of it .

[Misty]

Many thanks wainui and zqwerty for you advice. Firstly, I found to my absolute surprise that the little Toshiba laptop which is quite ancient, has in fact an SSD drive - Wow! Only 111 Gigs. Decided that I would go ahead with Drive Wiper and quickly got the message

"Secure wiping of drive C: is NOT recommended. Drive C: is an SSD which can wear out prematurely when securely wiped."

So, I stopped what I was going to do!

[1101]

"Secure wiping of drive C: is NOT recommended. Drive C: is an SSD which can wear out prematurely when securely wiped."

a single pass secure wipe isnt going to hurt it at all. The more secure MULTIPLE pass wipes might not be a good idea
Also, be very carefull with these programs, the wrong option could wipe the whole drive . Make sure its only wiping free/deleted space , and empty the recycle bin first :-)

note
https://kb.iu.edu/d/aiut
" Standard methods of secure drive erasure do not work with solid-state drives (SSDs) ,for alternative methods, see below "


https://blog.macsales.com/46199-how-...ing-the-drive/
" SSD manufacturers understand the need for an easy way to sanitize an SSD, and most have implemented the ATA command, Secure Erase Unit (used with SATA-based SSDs), or the NVMe command, Format NVM (used with PCIe-based SSDs) as a fast and effective means of securely erasing an SSD. "

[piroska]

little Toshiba laptop has in fact an SSD drive - Wow! Only 111 Gigs.

Then don't. Just delete the files. No-one will undelete them.

https://www.datanumen.com/blogs/poss...d-state-drive/

[Misty]

Many thanks, 1101 and piroska for the great feedback. I have spent a good couple of hours this afternoon researching around this. One of the things I did was to try to identify how old the laptop is. Logging on as Administrator, I found from the BIOS the date of 10.01.2010 ---- Wow!! Also, researching found that the laptop was originally sold with an HD. My marvelous IT guy, Anthony, would have installed the SSD for me (about 5 years ago?). The CPU is something very slow nowadays, being an Intel Atom N450. I did ring my IT guy and he said that with that CPU, Windows 10 and the slow processor, the laptop might struggle with internet searches. Nevertheless, I have briefly tried with Wikipedia and it coped relatively well.

Now, from my reading today and newly acquired knowledge, it seems that the SSD might have TRIM (thanks piroska). I have not checked using "Run as Administrator". Maybe I worry too much in this instance?

[John H]

I have been trying to find references to this case without success; perhaps someone else will remember. Apologies if I have misremembered the details.

As I recall, some years ago a registered counsellor engaged a computer technician to work on her computer. The computer carried the counsellor's client files, which were highly personal and confidential. The technician was engaged to install a new hard drive, transfer all files to the new drive, and destroy the old hard drive. Subsequently the old drive turned up in a computer built by the technician, and at least some of the files were recoverable. A client or clients sued the counsellor.

I never wanted to face that risk, so I have always destroyed replaced hard drives rather than rely on file deletion or the technician's ethics.

[Ofthesea]

Can't you just copy in some large files to nearly fill the disk. They would over write any deleted files. Then delete the new large files

[1101]

I have been trying to find references to this case without success; perhaps someone else will remember. Apologies if I have misremembered the details.

As I recall, some years ago a registered counsellor engaged a computer technician to work on her computer. The computer carried the counsellor's client files, which were highly personal and confidential. The technician was engaged to install a new hard drive, transfer all files to the new drive, and destroy the old hard drive. Subsequently the old drive turned up in a computer built by the technician, and at least some of the files were recoverable. A client or clients sued the counsellor.

Who does a data recovery on a PC they just bought ?
And it would not be a simple undelete after a Windows reload on a formated drive .

I do remember similar things many many many years back . It was a PC magazine (I think) trying to see what was recoverable on used PC's .
Some cases of this were a simple unformat , as the dive was formated and not overwritten (way back in time)
Not something Joe Average would do today, software needed for attempting data recovery on overwritten drives isnt free for a start (not the good recovery software).


But, as you said. Want 100% data deletion, then you destroy the hard drive or remove old drive & hand it over to the owner .
Dont want to destroy the drive , then you accept the risk .

[wainuitech]

But, as you said. Want 100% data deletion, then you destroy the hard drive or remove old drive & hand it over to the owner .
Dont want to destroy the drive , then you accept the risk .

Had a customer a long time ago when changing a drive wanted 100% Guarantee and proof that no one could ever get data from his old drive.

What I handed him back was the disks from inside the drive all completely covered both sides with deep angle grinder marks over all of the disk. Try and get data from that