Recycling Bin

[Nitro89]

I was reading about how data is never actually lost until it is over written by new deleted data (hope thats right), but whats the difference between shredding the recycling bin and just emptying it out?

[rkr1958]

Emptying it out in effect changes pointers to the disc space that those files occuppied and marks that space as free. The data in the files are still physically there and can easily be recovered until actually overwritten with other data / files. Shredding (depending on the application) physically overwrites to the disc sectors that contained the data in the files.

[Nitro89]

what's the best freeware shredder out there? I downloaded 'File Shredder' but it doesn't shred the 'recycling bin'

[bigstusexy]

I've tried one named eraser, it seems to have different levels of shredding and can shread free space and just about anything else. I am not paranoid about my data but its not a bad idea to do this every once and a while with sensitive documents. Also look into file encryption with something like trucrypt (free) for storage of documents.

http://heidi.ie/eraser/
http://www.truecrypt.org/

[Nitro89]

it seems that 'file shredder' does pretty much the same exact thing as 'eraser'.

I have a list of options, but which is the best in terms of the best shredding:
- Simple One Pass
- Simple Two Pass
- Dod 5220-22.M
- Secure erasing algorithm with 7 passes
- Guttman algorithm 35 passes

What will 'shred free disk space' do? Will it erase my whole drive or erase the free disk space on the drive leaving my files intact?

[marvel2020]

I use advanced File shredder, all you do is drag and drop whatever you want to shred into it's window, and press the shred button.

Depending on what settings you used and what you shredding it can take a while.

[bigstusexy]

its just like it says, shreads free space. If you have deleted files already and you aren't sure they have been overwritten to the point they aren't recoverable then you can use the free space shreadder for it to work on all free sectors.

Also eraser will do the recycle bin's contents. Right click it after its installed you should see a few options.