Permanently deleting a 'deleted' file

Angryjelly

Commendable
May 29, 2016
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In a situation that you deleted sensitive information on your computer without using any sort of "Shreader" tool than is their anyway to find and delete that file permanently? Because I know how window's recycle bin works, it says it deletes the file when in reality all it did was remove the ability for the computer to find it. is there program that permanently finds and writes over/deletes the files?

Matthew H.
 
Solution


This article goes into detail about teh differences between teh two and explains the "ATA Secure Erase" command needed to wipe ghost data from an SSD in order to sell it or whatever...

Angryjelly

Commendable
May 29, 2016
9
0
1,510

And this will only write over the deleted files right? because I still use this hardrive and would rather not have the whole thing lost.
 
That will work just fine for a hard drive. For an SSD, it may actually leave the data behind and recoverable, although difficult to recover. SSDs handle overwrites differently from the way HDDs do; they do not actually write to the same memory location when you specify the same disk location.
 

Angryjelly

Commendable
May 29, 2016
9
0
1,510


I was under the impression that SSDs fully deleted files as they were removed from the archive, if not how would I delete the files? The program worked for the HHD but what would I do for my SSD?
 


This article goes into detail about teh differences between teh two and explains the "ATA Secure Erase" command needed to wipe ghost data from an SSD in order to sell it or whatever: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/securely-erase-ssd-without-destroying/

TL;DR Barring some very recently released and upcoming drives, for an SSD this can't be done while still retainig some data on it. You need to send it the "ATA Secure Erase" command either through manufacturer software or a third party partitioning utility and the controller will wipe the whole drive.
 
Solution