Is deleting or trashing stuff into Recycle Bin secure?
Old Gamer 56 asked:
If I have a file with some fairly sensitive info on it, I can delete it or send it to Recycle Bin. Then, I can go to the Recycle Bin, and select and delete everything there. Is it secure? Would anyone be able to retrieve this info? Is there a better way? Thanks for any help.
If I have a file with some fairly sensitive info on it, I can delete it or send it to Recycle Bin. Then, I can go to the Recycle Bin, and select and delete everything there. Is it secure? Would anyone be able to retrieve this info? Is there a better way? Thanks for any help.
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Anything deleted through the recycle bin is not deleted completely. The information could be recovered through numerous ways.
When a file is deleted the data remains but the file is registered as free space so the data may be overwritten in time. But the information could be recovered if not overwritten.
I am pretty sure this program does a good job of deleting files (very hard to recover).
February 5th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
AVG has a shredder. Whenever you delete anything on your pc they are actually still there on the hard drive. They are just ”hidden” deeper in. A lot of people do not even know this.
So, best you shred these deletions using AVG. If you have AVG you will see through the tabs where it says “file shredder/shred files”. Add these files there and this shredder will shred them like 3 to 5 times and that secures you. Same for Spybot, but i trust AVG better.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:46 am
No deleting it from the Recycle Bin is not secure.
To use a analogy, Think of Windows keeping a table of contents like you would find in a book. It shows Chapters, Topics, Page numbers where information could be found. When you “delete” , Windows just erases its location information, a specific entry in the Table of contents. All of the information is still there, but as far as Windows is concerned, that location is now available to write new chapters, topics, page numbers if it needs to. This is called free space. You go to the front of the book and appears to you that it (the information) is gone. Until it is overwritten its still there. Windows may not even overwrite it, just in case you change your mind to put it back into the table of contents. That would be the function of the Recycle Bin.
So what to do? You might want to consider a file shredder. Not unlike doing to a file what a paper Shredder does to a piece of paper. Make it as unrecoverable as you can. File shredders are applications.
Which one? I do not recommend any particular maker since I have not tried them all.
This one looks promising. Allows you a free 30 day trial.
I use one that is part of a anti-malware application called Spybot Search and Destroy, but the learning curve is a bit high and may frustrate most beginners. Part of the utilities is a Secure Shredder which is availible in a Advanced mode.
Regards