| Author | Message | ||
     Anonymous |
Where does the recycle bin actually reside? I’m trying to make sure that when I, “Empty the Recycle bin”, that the files are permanently gone. | ||
| Stefan Fleischmann (Admin) |
In the subdirectory \recycler or \recycled of a drive, depending on the Windows version. | ||
| Anonymous |
it's a 98 machine | ||
| Paul Mullen (Pcguru) |
The recycle bin is a hidden directory \Recycled on each drive which has copies of the files but with changed names. There is also a hidden system file Info2 which contains details of the original name and location of each deleted file. When you empty the recycle bin these files are deleted but are not overwritten. Like deleted files under DOS the directory entries will remain there (in the recycle bin directory as well as in the original data directory) until those directory entries are reused. When you empty the Recycle Bin the disk space containing the actual files is marked as free for reuse in the File Allocation table (which makes it hard to locate data clusters used by fragmented files) but the directory entry holds the starting cluster number, and file recovery is possible until something else uses that disk space. In forensic work the Info2 file will show which files were deleted and also the date and time of deletion. In one civil case I was able to give evidence that the files were deleted two days after the lawyer filed a discovery request for them, though the defendants had claimed in a sworn deposition that they had been deleted months earlier. That was sufficient for the judge to instruct the jury that they were to presume the evidence in the unrecoverable files would have supported the plaintiff's case. A secure delete program will overwrite the space used by the files and also overwrite their directory entries. If that (or lots of file writing or a drive defrag) is not done it is probably possible to recover the data. | ||
| Anonymous |
Would the winhex program do this? And without trying to learn code, what would be a good beginners book to get a broader understanding of this? Thanks | ||
| Stefan Fleischmann (Admin) |
> Would the winhex program do this? WinHex can securely erase files (File Manager menu), but the ones in the recycle bin not in an automated way. | ||
| r udy acuna |
exactly where is the recycle bin. i have two prefetch programs there that i cannot extract. not restore and safemode doesn;t work |