Does Eraser destroy information deleted by Recycle Bin

J

JoeB

New Member
So I know in the Recycle Bin you can choose Empty the Recycle Bin and that the files that were in the bin while you performed that command are still recoverable. This is why I downloaded Eraser. But how can I directly shred the files that I have deleted previously without downloading any recovery software?

Thanks for your time.
 
Use an unused space erase; you'll need to run Eraser as an administrator for that to succeed (exit the instance running in the background first, before starting a new administrator-level instance.)
 
You can just use a single pseudorandom pass -- a 35 pass algorithm would be overkill since you will be requiring to write 35*free space of your drive. It'll take way too long.

In any case, current sentiments are that a single pass is sufficient to erase all traces of files irrecoverably, on a recent enough drive (after 2003? if memory serves.)
 
Haha yes even this 1 pass isn't even showing any green bar after 10 minutes. Is it okay for me to shut my laptop lid and continue the process later? Or will that corrupt the shredding?

Oh and how long do you estimate this to take? I know there are a lot of variables but consider me your average person that has had this computer for 1 year.
 
There's really no way to pause the clean up at this point in time. You'll either let your computer go straight into standby (thus literally halting the erasure) or cancel and start again when you can run it at your convenience.
 
So when you say halt you mean it will pick up where it left off? I have to leave this laptop on all night and since the green bar has not budged probably all week?
 
well, when Windows goes into a lower power-state, everything the OS controls is "paused." So yes, I would assume it would be safe to go to stand by when erasing (but not hibernate -- it's a different case)

If you configured a one-pass erasure then for most drives it should complete overnight.
 
Sorry the questions keep coming but I'm receiving messages from the log and I think it's the reason why I can't seen any progress bar. The Messages all are pretty much the same apart from the top two being red and they say:

Date/Error/C:\hiberfil.sys did not have its cluster tips erased because of the following error: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (Exception from HRESULT:0x80070020


Is this normal? I definitely ran as admin.
 
That's normal. Since you enabled cluster tip erasure, that will take even longer.

Elsewhere in the forum David has discussed about cluster tip erasures and the basic guideline is that it takes up a lot of time for very little extra security. If you are not very concerned, and erasing those remnants are your main target, you can skip cluster tip erasures altogether.

Cluster tip erasures really only make sense for files which are modified often.
 
Thank you so much for your help! I have skipped Cluster Tips and can now see green bar! Thanks again.
 
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