When I Empty the Computer's trash is it still in my computers memory?

Question

How can I completely remuve it.

Answer 1

Yes, it is until written over. You can wipe it clean with window washer ( a program with a free trial) or you can try evidence eliminator. There are many programs with Mcafee and Symantec in bundled software as well.

Answer 2

No when you empty the trash all the computer has done is eliminate the part of the FAT (file allocation table) that tells the computer where to find the parts of the file on the hard drive, but the parts remain on the drive where they were until those parts are re-used. So it is possible to recover the "trashed file" from the drive if the sectors the file was written in are not re-used.

Emptying the trash really just means eliminating the file from the computer's central index and marking the place where the files are stored on the disc as available to write new information. Its not safe to assume the files are gone.

As somebody else wrote you need to get a program that not only eliminates the index entry but also erases the actual sectors on the disc that hold the parts of the file. Otherwise, somebody who is smart will be able to read what's still sitting on the hard disc.

Answer 3

Assuming your using a Windows computer, once u "empty" the recycle bin windows just deletes the pointer to place on your hard drive where the file was stored, it does not actually delete the file. To do that what u want to do is a "secure delete" or "secure erase" using a 3rd party program, like Norton Utility, although there are free programs out there just search for Secure Delete on download.com or versiontracker.com

A secure delete will most likely write a random data or 1's and 0's over the location of your file your deleting on the hard drive over and over. A standard government "secure delete" writes 1's and 0's I believe 7 times.

Answer 4

Everything remains on your computer until that portion of the disk that contains is it over-written.

All that happens when you delete something or empty the trash is that the .dll link to that file is deleted. In other words ... your computer will no longer access it and it becomes "eligible" to be written over with new files.

If you want to delete something permanently and render it un-recoverable ... you'll need to buy a program that will "wipe" it ... by writing over it a few hundred or thousand times with gibberish.

Otherwise ... it's still there and recoverable.

Answer 5

Yes it is still in there. When you delete the file it just removes the file extension and puts it into free memory. Certain programs can retrieve the data. You need to use a file shredder program or format your drive to get rid of everthing.

Answer 6

yes. in order to completely remove it you would either need a program specifically designed for that purpose or you would need to do a low-level format. this would delete everything on your harddrive though.

When you "delete" something in windows, you aren't deleting the file itself, you're just deleting "pointers" which are small files that let your computer know where that data is on the hard drive. It is still able to be retrieved if needed.

Answer 7

Free program http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Removing trash doesn't remove it from hard drive and can still be retrieved by others. Program above should assist you.

Answer 8

Take your hard drive, put it in the trash, take the trash out and insert a new hard drive.... then you'll know it's gone for sure! :)

Answer 9

If you're on a Mac you have to use SECURE TRASH. You can also do this on Windows but I don't know exactly how. Googgle it.

Answer 10

wHEN U DELETE ANY THING, THAT GOES TO SOME JUNK MEMORY OF THE PC.
TO COMPLETELY REMOVE THE FILE JUST PRESS THIS WHILE DELETING: "Shift+Delete".
They will prompt forYes/no.
Click: "Yes"
Voilla!