Secure deleting files with occupied clusters

[EclipseWebJS]

I was checking out the new Secure Deletion feature in Recuva and want to ask: Is it safe to securely erase deleted files whose recovery statuses report "Poor", "Very Poor" or "Unrecoverable"? Or would it destroy existing files occupying the cluster zone of where the file was?

[Guest MrRon]

Recuva only overwrites the remaining fragments of a deleted file, so yes it is absolutley safe to use on files marked poor/unrecoverable.

 

MrRon

[Augeas]

Ron, is the corollary of this that we should securely delete even overwritten files, as there may still be sectors around that haven't been overwritten and could conceivably be recovered? (I would expect to do this only on sensitive files, such as user data, I am not a 'securely delete at all costs' user.)

 

If we recover a part-overwritten file (with Recuva), does the recovery include all the sectors of the original file, the good as well as the bad?

 

Rgds.

[Guest MrRon]

Ron, is the corollary of this that we should securely delete even overwritten files, as there may still be sectors around that haven't been overwritten and could conceivably be recovered? (I would expect to do this only on sensitive files, such as user data, I am not a 'securely delete at all costs' user.)

Yes, as any remaining fragments could still be recovered.

 

 

If we recover a part-overwritten file (with Recuva), does the recovery include all the sectors of the original file, the good as well as the bad?

Yes, that's how Recuva works.

MrRon