How to overwrite a Thunderbird emails.zip file with recuva

[Sabrina28]

Hello all. I am trying to overwrite a file using recuva, but it keeps telling me that it is unable to overwrite special file type. The file name is Thunderbird emails.zip. When I first found it I recovered it then went back later to overwrite it with recuva so it would not be in my ssd drive free space. Does anyone know why this cannot be overwritten? Thanks for any help with this.

[Augeas]

The email zip file is not created until a recovery is done, so it can't be overwritten. It takes up no space. I believe the deleted emails are in Thunderbird's own data bases, so would have to be cleaned up through Thunderbird, if you so wished.

[Sabrina28]

Thanks Augeas for your response.

Are you saying it is impossible to overwrite those emails that I had deleted since 2012 without doing a secure erase of my whole system...which I was hoping to not have to do. I am not concerned abouit any space they are taking up. I had just rather not have some of them there that can be recovered. I thought they had been overwritten by the program called Erase. I had also used CCleaner but neither one overwrote those files. The emails are not in Thunderbird's database. I even tried filling up my free space with files hoping to overwrite them that way, but no, they were still found on there by recuva. Can anyone on here tell me what is keeping those files from being overwritten? I was able to overwrite everything eles on the free space with recova except that. Thanks.

[Augeas]

I'm not a Thunderbird user (my answer was based on how the OE zip file works) but if it's the same as OE then all emails are kept in TB's data bases and are physically deleted when the data bases are compacted. Really need a TB user to confirm, and to say whether my first post is OK or rubbish.

[hazelnut]

Have you had a read here?

 

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/993084

[Sabrina28]

hazelnut, Yes, thanks, I read the following article you posted:

 

Note: You cannot securely delete the ZIP file in Step 2 before you recover it. Recuva only creates the ZIP file when you choose to recover the emails.

So...I recovered it with Recuva and then tried to securely delete it with the overwrite feature on Recuva, but it still refused to wipe it. I also tried cipher from windows tool box, and itwould not get rid of Thunderbird emails.zip either.

[Augeas]

There's something wrong with the comprehension here. The zip file that Recuva shows in its scan does not physically exist. It can't be deleted, securely or otherwise. It is there to tell you that Recuva has found some deleted emails which can be recovered.

 

When you recover this file, a zip file will be created in whatever folder you recover to. This zip file holds a copy of the deleted emails The zip file shown by the Recuva scan remains in its non-existent state. The deleted emails still remain in TB's data bases.

 

The zip file shown in the Recuva scan does not contain any emails, and cannot be used to delete emails from your TB email client. It is only used to recover deleted emails. If you want to remove deleted emails then forget Recuva, forget wiping free space, and turn to Thunderbird.

 

Have a look at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/user-support/keep-thunderbird-from-building-too-big-a-nest-on-your-hard-disk/

 

or in even more detail http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders