Vanity**Permanently Deleting Files

Vanity ^ | 12/10/2018 | Outofsalt

[OldMissileer]

I have been using a program called “Eraser” for quite a few years and it works in all Windows environments.

You can completely erase single, multiple, or whole directories and it allows you to select many different security levels to include all the different DoD standards.

It also allows you to erase free space on your drives.

One thing you may need to note. I saw a couple posts telling you to defrag your drive first but if you are using an SSD do not defrag it as it could mess up the allocation table.

[Signalman]

As far as solid state drives (SSD), you can use ccleaner to permanently delete files that are in the re-cycle bin and other “junk files” such as the browser cache, temporary files, etc.

But never use ccleaner to wipe free space on an SSD. An SSD has limited write cycles and running a file cleaner on an SSD’s free space will shorten the life of the drive.

This does not apply to hard drives.

[Osage Orange]

Some when we “permanently” delete....They aren’t really gone, gone?

[outofsalt]

Thanks for that advice.

[Concentrate]

At the bottom, is an option to delete free space. I’ve never used it, but if you think you need to, it’s available. Can’t say how effective it would be, though.

[imardmd1]

1. Get a low-level-formatted drive identical to the one you have.

2. Delete all the files you want gone on your current drive.

3. Using Norton's Ghost drive duplicating application, or one like it, to transfer all your active files from your current drive to the replacement drive (only the active files will be copied).

4. Replace your current drive with the "ghosted" drive and boot your computer up with it to ensure that the computer is working just as before.

5. Then just put the old drive on the shelf as a backup; or reconnect it and low-level format it with the maintenance program from the drive manufacturer. Then save the drive for use if you want to do this same thing again in the future.

One of the benefits is that your files will now be in sequential order, allowing file access to be a little faster.

[TChad]

For a good overview, read this:

https://docs.bleachbit.org/doc/shred-files-and-wipe-disks.html

To get rid of a few individual files, you can use Bleachbit:

https://www.bleachbit.org/download

After you install it, be sure to click Edit > Preferences and select "Overwrite contents of files to prevent recovery."

Be VERY careful with Bleachbit. If you tell it by mistake to wipe out your important files, it will do so. Treat it like a loaded gun with the safety off.

After you securely delete your problem files, you have made a good start.

You can then run a file recovery utility such as Recuva. If Recuva can't recover the files, that is a good sign. If it can recover the files, try zeroing the hard disk free space, and again running Bleachbit followed by Recuva.

If you have an SSD instead of a regular hard drive, all bets are off.

That's a reasonable start, but it might easily not be good enough. If you want files that cannot be recovered by the NSA, use full drive encryption.

[afterhoursarmory]

Destroy the hard drive physically.

If your windows 10 in on that drive, destroy the hard drive and take the time to re-install windows10 on a small newer hard drive and put all your apps on a second hard drive.
It will take you time to get a new setup complete; it will also make your life easier in the future when you want to destroy data again. Just destroy the drive.
Its what I do.
My OS and data are on separate drives.

[PAR35]

Question that I haven’t seen asked (or answered) yet. What program do you use for emails - if it is a standard Microsoft email client (Outlook, outlook Express, Microsoft Mail (old program abandoned years ago), Microsoft Mail (unrelated new program with a different mail) then all the emails are probably balled up in a single .pst file - deleting them will likely be an all-or-nothing exercise. If anything else, there are probably copies of them stored away on the internet somewhere that will never be forever gone. (And, indeed, there are, in any event, probably copies on an NSA controlled server somewhere; maybe here, maybe in England.) So you might as well give up on the thought that you can really do anything about emails except put investigators to some effort.

As for other files, there are likely solutions. I knew of one federal agency that had a commercial quality drill press with a hardened bit that they used for no longer needed hard drives. It seemed reasonably effective.

[outofsalt]

Thank you!

[catnipman]

your big problem with emails is that deleting an IMAP email doesn’t really delete it, but instead moves it into the trash can, which must be emptied before the email is deleted, and even then the email isn’t really deleted locally until you compress the folder ... and even then many email services keep multiple backups of your emails on their servers ... it’s really just best to never put anything in an email unless you’re willing to have the whole world read it ... that was the rule of thumb we all learned back when email was available only in the academic and military world before the civilian Internet was started ...

[dayglored]

Windows 10 True-Delete help request... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

Thanks to Army Air Corps for the ping!

[outofsalt]

I’m a big believer in deleting old files of every thing I have no need of. What I want to keep I back up to an off line drive. I use OE and I recognize that it’s on the servers but, I just want to keep my online system free of identifiable info as a preventative measure to limit hackability.
“Just cause you’re paranoid doesn’t mean...”
Privacy is an illusion in todays world but, I like to keep things minimized.

[Baynative]

I suggest looking at the Swiss Company Proton Mail. I switched a while back. It's encrypted and loaded with features I haven't even learned about so far. While deletion may be hard to do, the encryption is a first line protection.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Maybe you should take your hard drive out with you on your boat the next time you go fishing.

Then it might accidentally go overboard like your guns.

[higgmeister]

Just out of curiosity, how are the sneak thieves going to get into your drive and why would they want to?

[outofsalt]

"how are the sneak thieves going to get into your drive and why would they want to?"

I don't know. My wife and I are buying an investment property and everything is done online, with a bunch of files and a lot of account numbers, scanned and submitted and for an old school geezer, I just want to take that off my machine. Creeps me out having that all sitting there when my kids go to all sorts of unknown sites.

[higgmeister]

Question - why 521 not 512, in the Windows help file?

lysdexic coders?

[TChad]

Creeps me out having that all sitting there when my kids go to all sorts of unknown sites.

If you have files that you don't want other users of the computer to access, you can store them on an encrypted Veracrypt container. To other users the container will look like a large single file on your hard drive, but you can mount it like a regular drive (such as drive C:) from within the Veracrypt program. When that drive is dismounted, no one can access its files.

To speed up Veracrypt's drive mounting, you can use a 20+ character password and a PIM under 10.

[Still Thinking]

Dban. But hard drive capacity is so cheap there’s no point. Just destroy the drive. Take a couple shots at it, or Dr. Thinking’s Low Level Format with Extreme Prejudice: take the platters out and run them through the shredder.