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"Empty" Recycle Bin vs. Shredding


snowdrift

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I recently paid my $20 to support CCleaner. I hope you will think about doing the same.

 

A question, though... There is a checkbox called "Empty Recycle Bin" in CCleaner 2.0. (Elsewhere, I have made sure when CCleaner works, it uses secure wiping rather than plain deletion.)

 

If I check "Empty Recycle Bin," does CCleaner just delete the files it contains, or does it, in my case, wipe the links and the actual files on the drive?

 

To me, "emptying" means CCleaner doesn't *wipe* Recycle Bin links and actual disk contents.

 

Do I misunderstand?

 

Thanks.

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Well, I may have found my answer...

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showto...ipe+recycle+bin

 

This link says CCleaner does wipe the files. But is it wiping the links to the files in the Bin or the actual files on the disk? There is a difference.

 

The reason I started this entry... Eraser takes a while to wipe the Recycle Bin. CCleaner 2.X seems to fly with the same options. That speed got me second-guessing.

 

Thanks.

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It just took a little over 4 secs for CCleaner to "empty" my Recycle Bin, with about 39M of data in it.

 

It took Eraser 4.84 over 10 secs with the same number of passes.

 

What accounts for the difference?

 

Is CCleaner truly wiping the disk contents themselves, or just their links in the Recycle Bin? Any insights?

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JRd1st, I did an experiment on a 135MB PowerPoint. I deleted it directly to the Recycle Bin in Windows XP SP2, then had CCleaner v1.45.544 seven-pass wipe the Recycle Bin. The file is in fact gone if Recuva v1.04.104 is reporting correctly. Not only is the file's data gone, but the file itself has been renamed to SSSSSSS.SSS in the MFT, which is a nice touch as well.

 

I was amazed that Recuva could find so many files on my C: Drive, but it appears they are all invalid. I tried opening up a number of them. I use a variety of programs to clean my drive so it's hard to say which one might be doing a better job than another.

 

One other question... is there any way to clean up the MFT itself? I don't even want to see old file names in there.

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