This is just mild curiosity. I am a very lean user, with around 8.75 gb used on my 160 gb disk. When I run Recuva in normal mode it finds around 12,500 deleted files (incl secure deleted, system and zero byte files). Just about enough to handle. What do others have?

I've run deep scan a couple of times but I can't remember how many files turned up. Quite a few, including, strangely, files that I have never deleted (such as windows default wallpaper) and some I can't remember ever owning. And some copies, scarily, of confidential files I have never deleted, presumably abandoned when the file grew in size.

Augeas, you must understand that no secure file deletion method is foolproof. With the right amount of time, a data recovery expert, and the right softwware and hardware combination, any data can be recovered. The only way to permanently erase your data is to use very strong magnets and move them around on the disk. Then, melt the hard drive platters at a very high heat temperature, Then, smash the disk into little pieces, and throw it in the garbage.

I use Gutmann's 35 pass file deletion method, it's incredibly secure, but sometimes the Windows file deletion skips certain other files if you use this method.

Yes, yes, yes, but how many deleted files do you have?

To wander from the orginal question, I think it's safe to say that no overwritten data has ever been recovered, and none is likely to be in the future. Overwritten files (as opposed to data) are recovered from reconstructing data fragments from the many un-overwritten sectors that remain on the disk.


Ah, Gutmann. How I wish he had kept his mouth closed, and how I wish Piriform had done a little research. It's a waste of time (34 wastes of time, actually), as Gutmann (to his credit) acknowledged when he stated in his original 1996 paper that you may as well overwrite the disk with one pass of random data.

I could bang on about this for hours. Rgds.

Right on!!! Augeas.
I have found as little as a couple of thousand if I clean everything,"defrag" and use 1 pass "secure delete" and then load some movies.
After using the PC browsing and such I will be back to around 12,000 - 15,000 when I run Recuva again.
This PC is still on it's original 80 GB HD. It is on 24/7. I do very little "defragging" only when needed. I only use "secure delete" 1 overwrite only when I use Recuva which I do maybe once a month at the most.
My buddies other PC is constantly "defragged" and "secure delete" multiple pass overwritten,turned off every night and on it's second 225 GB HD. He wants to know why my slower PC doesn't need a new Hard Drive and responds faster running the same programs on my slower PC. I told him why and he still doesn't believe me. Some people are just stubborn,thick headed, and too self-opinionated to believe what is presented right before their eyes. This PC is 10 months older than the other with 256 MB RAM vs. 512 MB RAM on the other.

Regards,
davey It sure is a puzzle isn't it ???

Morning Davey - going from the time of your post I think you are the opposite of SleepingTheNight.

<Some people are just stubborn,thick headed, and too self-opinionated to believe what is presented right before their eyes.>

I'm sure that doesn't apply to anyone in this forum! Rgds. (I have many lawns to cut on a beautiful summer morning.)

We're probably in different timezones.

But augeas, the reason I didn't give you a straight answer there as to how many files I have left over, is because every scanner I use gives me different results. Recuva, restorations, NTFS-Recover, and more all give me a different number of files.

Hi Augeas, here's flower, I downloaded Recuva (newest) and started scanning my C: drive, I came to 50856 files who were detected, I went out, it took so long and never got to the part where one can actually see the files.
Once there was a helpfile from Dennis but when I got there there was a fault on the page....so ...no help in discovering how it all works. I use about 20GB from the 200 I have.
Can you help me getting started please?

Hello Flower (are there 21 other flowers too?). Check in the Options/Advanced that you haven't ticked Deep Scan (should be unticked by default). I only have Show Files in Hidden Directories ticked. The scan also tells you what percentage you have reached. You can cancel Stage 2 (if it ever gets there) with no ill effect at all.

Recuva in normal scan mode only reads the MFT so it should be very quick, seconds really.

How about that. I didn't catch your meaning the first time.I don't think SleepingTheNight caught it either.
I originally thought you meant opposite world time zones also.

Yeah.Sometimes or most times you could give me the name "SleepingTheDay". Unfortunately, not all the time.

davey
P.S. From all the reports I get on how cool and moist this summer has been for the U.K., you must keep very busy trying to keep up with those beautiful green lawns. Hope you get an adjustment from your customers and not get stuck with a fixed annual contract. Otherwise we will end up calling you "WorksAllDay+1/2theNight" .

Customers? The lawns are all mine. Luckily growth has slowed a little. Now it's on to the hedges, lots there too and mostly holly, which fights back. It's all go here.

I was watching roofers in Atlanta last month, working long days in conditions where it was too hot just to stand and watch, let alone work. And all off a couple of ladders, you'd never get away with it in the UK.

You must have quite a spread !!!
I remember you saying you were visiting in Atlanta !!!
Never get away with what ? Maybe in U.K. the cop is outside and walking more than they do in the U.S. .No self respecting cop is going to get out of his nice cool A/C cop car to tell some illegal aliens to get down off no stinkin' roof . No decent American roofer (union or non-union) is going to let his men work under those dangerous conditions. Temperatures or off a couple of ladders.
I thought goats kept the lawns and hedges trimmed. Maybe I have been watching to many old Britt shows on the telly.
You would be better off if they were lawn customers. "Lairds of the Manor" get paid zip like us "Harry Homeowners".
Depending on where you live in the U.S. this summer, your lawn is brown grass or brown silt deposits.
davey
P.S. BTW,the latest deleted file count is now about 9,300. Do some more browsing and such will bring it back down. Run CCleaner to run it back up.

Yes, we do have a very large garden - I have been toying with the idea of getting a couple of helpful Polish lads around to help for a few pounds. Maybe when I get even more feeble.

The US roofs were a little flatter than ours, but not a lot, and mostly two floors tall as well. The workers, who were probably Central American, just shinned up with a handful of tiles in one hand and a nail-gun in the other. I'm sure there would have to be a mass of scaffolding here to satisfy health and safety, and rightly too, as we insist in using these clay or concrete tiles. They did seem to be legit firms though.

Sheep aren't too bad, goats are just too bolshie. You have to remember that what goes in one end comes out of the other, and to sheep and goats flowers are far more delectable than silly grass, and they have all day to think of ways to escape.

P.S. Cops, walking? Ha ha ha! At least yours don't wear stab jackets.

Did I say goats? What was I thinking? English sheep of course.
Those Polish lads will probably work any others right into the ground. They are hard workers !!!

Right,are stab jackets anything like "bullet proof vests" or do stab jackets require a little more metal in their make-up?

Number of deleted files up to 9,473 .
Good night morning ToTo time for bed,
davey