"Erase unused Space"

[gebi88]

I deleted a Word-Document from the "Trash" - but I want to make sure that it will be destroyed completely and never be found on my pc.
So I used the "Erase unused Space" - it took almost 3 hours.
Can I be sure now - that this word-document is now destroyed and noone ca find it on my PC anymore ?

 

[Robbie]

I deleted a Word-Document from the "Trash" - but I want to make sure that it will be destroyed completely and never be found on my pc.
So I used the "Erase unused Space" - it took almost 3 hours.
Can I be sure now - that this word-document is now destroyed and noone ca find it on my PC anymore ?

That's a rather long-winded way of deleting a single file. Instead of "erasing unused space" to delete a file, just point at the file itself and right-click, then click on "Erase". If you have already sent it to the trash (Recycle Bin), then right click on Recycle Bin and do the same operation. But if you do the latter, make sure everything else in the Recycle Bin is also meant to be deleted, as they will all be deleted in the same way.

Once you have done that, it will be unrecoverable. Though it is preferable to delete the file directly, rather than send it to Trash to then delete it, since there may be a reference to it (in free space). Trash / Recycle Bin is initself just another folder within the Windows system

 

[Carver]

You could use Windows Search to look for copys of the Document on your computer and use a undelele utility to search for the Document in unused space from http://www.snapfiles.com/. I just Erased unused space on a Western digital 120 gig HD and it took 3 hours. Actually I have 2, but I did one Western Digital HD as a test.

 

[spy1]

Carver - It would seem as though the HD itself is the limiting factor as far as the amount of time it takes to erase free-space goes (both its' size, GB-wise. and how much of it's actually being used - the more "un-used" space on the drive, the longer the free-space "wipe" takes).

I just have the one HD here ( a Maxtor 160GB, 7200 r.p.m, Ultra ATA/133 w/8MB cache) - and I really screwed up by buying it because I simply don't need that much space (what can I say - it was on sale!).

The problem with that is that I'm sitting here with 89% free-space on this disk normally - so my Eraser free-space runs also take 3.3 hours.

I can see in the near future buying one of the new Seagate 15,000 r.p.m. HD's - a much smaller-capacity HD. That should make doing things like erasing free-space, doing a low-level format or an "emergency" HD-wipe much quicker. Pete

 

[Glenn]

You can partition the harddrive and erase only the used portion.

I partitioned my 160GB in two halves. Doing 1/2 a drive seems to take less than 1/3 the time. I assume it's because C:\ is on the outer edge where the transfer rate is faster.