Effect of erasing Recycle Bin

[VLM]

When I delete a file using standard Windows deletion and it is "moved" to the Recycle Bin, does the OS actually move the file, as make a second copy, or does the OS simply change a pointer or other attribute about the file?

In other words, if I run Eraser once daily, or weekly, or whatever on the Recycle Bin, does this effectively take care of the on-disk content for everything I have deleted into the Recycle Bin?

Thank you kindly!

 

[Joel]

Since recycle bins are stored on a per-drive basis, i.e. each drive has its own recycle bin which are all collated and shown to you as one, the file references are just moved from the old folder to the recycle bin.

This however does not solve the problem of having the old file reference in the old folder. While the file contents are not recoverable when erasing from the recycle bin, the file metadata may have been stored in the original directory and that may be recoverable.

 

[VLM]

So the only truly safe way to do this is to use Eraser immediately, first time out. Thanks, that's very clear.

 

[DavidHB]

So the only truly safe way to do this is to use Eraser immediately, first time out.

Or make a new folder, move the remaining contents of your original folder to that, erase the original folder, and rename the new folder to the original name. You could also erase free space, just to be sure. Of course, those thoughts rather tend to make your point for you ...

David

 

[VLM]

Yes, they do! Thanks, David!