Secure FIle Deletion

I know Spybot has a way to do a secure file deletedon, but I think you have to specify each file.

Is there a way with either spybot or ccleaner - to have it do a secure deleteion of everything in the recycle bin?

Fay

You can use ccleaner to securely delete files in the recycle bin:

1. In the Cleaner windows pane, check all file types you wish to secure delete (e.g. Recycle Bin)

2. Click the Options icon in the left column > Settings

3. Under Secure Deletion, select "Secure Deletion (Slower)"

4. Select the number of Overwrite passes you want (1, 3, 7 or 35) for the secure deletion

5. Select which drives you want to perform Wipe freespace drives

6. Select the Cleaner icon in the left column

7. Select the Run Cleaner button

Repa,

Thanks a lot. Good to know it can be done. Not sure it is all that important on my computer, but it is really good to know it can be done and that easily.

Thanks again.

Fay

Repa,

Ok, got it for secure delte for recylce bin - thanks to your informaton.
What about secure delete of e-mail from outlook express and windows live mail.

Thanks
Fay

I'm thinking that the selection of "Wipe Free Space drives" on the Settings panel gets the email files that you have already deleted. I suppose you could also select Options > Include and add those files to be wiped if you haven't deleted them already. I think either might do the trick, but not 100% sure.

LOL

In CCLEANER I did not see a way to spcify a file.

I went to spybot secure delete. Went to the e-mail folder - selected the deleted folder - chose all the items (could not tell by the name what each one was) and said chop away

WHen I went back to my e-ail program and clicked on the deleted folder, it still showed a listof everything but then when I click on an indiviual e-mail - it gets and error.
So I think the e-mails are deleted - but there must be an index left somewhere. Guss I'll ave to try to figure that out.

Went in to my e-mail program - and selected the delted folder and clicked on the x to delete - like I sould have if the e-mail were still there. Seemed to work. Got rid of the e-mail list.

Still not sure what fiel the index list is in. Don't know if I got soemthing out of sync. Guess I'll find out as I used it.

I did back up before I did it

Thanks,
Fay

Here's a picture of how to specify a file in ccleaner:

Options > Include > Add button



When done adding files, go back to step 2 in my previous post for secure file deletion and proceed as before. If instead, you want to delete all files in a Folder, you can specify the Drive or Folder, and then down below in the Options pull down menu, you can select Include Files Only, Include Files and Subfolders, or Include Files, Subfolders and the Folder itself. Seems to me this should work, but I haven't tried it.

Repa,

ughh I was getting this confused with the Driver Wiper option under Tools.

OK, I think I see how to accomplisth with ccleaner what I did with SpyBot.
Which do you think is the best to used to do a secure deletion SpyBot or CClaner?

I know you don't use Window Live Mail, so you may not can anser this, but do you think the way I handled getting rid of the message list - after the mssages were deleted is OK. I do not know where the list\index is. Seems to have worked ok, by doing the secure deletion, then going into my mail client - selecting the deleted folder and doing the delte. But don't know if that is the "proper" way to do it.

I still have outlook express on my old computer. RIght now I am not useing it for e-mail, but if I had problems with this compuer I might want to. I don't know if this mthod of secure deletion will work for it. I can't remember if the e-mail is stored the same way - will worry about that another time.

Thanks,
Fay

I don't know which is better Fay, because I don't use that feature as I'm not worried about the files I do delete. All personal, income tax and banking files are archived and I don't get rid of them. Other stuff doesn't matter, and the emails never get on my computer as I use the providers' servers and not an email client. It occurs to me that if ghost images of those files remain after using Spybot, then the registry entries weren't cleaned up by Spybot. You should try using ccleaner next time and see if the same thing occurs. Running the registry option of ccleaner after doing a secure delete "should" clean up any of the ghost files if you continue to use Spybot. It's safe to use - never had a problem with it on XP or Win 7, and it gives you the option of backing up the registry before you complete the cleaning action. I always set a new restore point anyway, just in case, if there a lot of entries that need to be deleted.

This shows you where OE messages and the address book are stored in Windows xp:

http://www.insideoe.com/files/store.htm

In Windows 7, open OE to find the OE Message Store Location as follows:

In OE: Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of your Outlook Express files. Write the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer

Repa,

I tried using CCLEANER to do the delete. It did the same thing as Spybot. When I went back to my e-mail - the list of the e-mails was still there, but when I would click on one - the actual e-mail was not there.

I tried using the registry cleaner of CCleaner.
Went back to the e-mail and the list was still there.

Clicking on the delete folder inside the client and telling it to delete, the same way I would if I was deleting the e-mails themselves, seems to work

So, I don't know where it is getting that list.

But I think the above procedure will work fine for me. It is not often I have an e-mail I am concrened about. Normally only if someone sends me a password. Even if I just deleted the e-mail normally, the chances of it being a problem are pretty slim. But using this procedure when I do have e-mails with confidenetial information will make me feel a bit better.

I'll check out the outlook express stuff, at some time later.

Thanks for all your help. '
I think I now have all my personal data - except for the WLM contacts on the partion I set up to hold it and off the C partition. I am not terribly concerned about the contacts. And since they do not change that often, I can use the method you posted to export - and just remember to do it again if I add contacts I want to be sure to save.

I'll play around with the OE stuff later.

Thanks again for all your information. It has been a big help.

Fay