When I delete files, programs etc.....are they actually removed from my computer?

Question

I've heard that even though I delete items they are still on my computer as 'ghost files' that still can clog up my computer.

Answer 1

Yes, but files can't be recovered all the time ... Smaller files can be recovered easily ... But larger ... It depends on that how many times You have rewritten place where file was (on disk plates ... not in folders ... so don't try to do it manually) .

If You want to delete Your files for good You might use some free privacy tools for destroying data ...
Try this one:
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Answer 2

When files are deleted from the recycle bin/trash can, on the disk they are just ignored. In other words, the disk is like, "Just pretend that nothing's there. And it's okay if you put something else there." Thus, if nothing has been written in that spot yet, the contents of a file are still physically there.

Perhaps you've heard of a "secure delete." Before ignoring the area on disk, it is intentionally overwritten with jibberish or just zeroes or something. That way, not only is the file being ignored by the operating system, but the contents of the file are not even physically there anymore, as that area of the disk has been changed.

Answer 3

When a file is deleted using Windows, all it does is remove the directory entry that points to the file, and mark its location as "free space" for eventual reuse. Once the directory entry is removed, the file is not taking up an room on your computer. It is added to the free space.

However, the information in the file is still on your computer. It will remain there until the space is reused by a new file. But it is NOT clogging up your computer or using hard drive space. All free space has something in it. It may be random cahracters, or it may be a old file. But there is something there. But because it is marked as "free space", the computer does not count it, or use it as a file.

Answer 4

No only way to get rid of a file is to shred it. Tune up shredder very good program. Mill spec shredding of files run it through 8 times. But if a dish is above Restricted they will melt the disk down to make sure. Shredder writes over all the places where the file was stored with random 1's n 0's, whereas if you just delete it will delete the info from FAT or NTFS of where the file is stored on your hard drive so it thinks nothing is there.

Answer 5

The answer to your question depends on a lot of things..

Normally when you delete a file, what windows does is that it moves these files to the recycle bin, these can be recovered by a few click. In order to bypass recycle bin, select the file and hold the shift key and press delete.

Every file system contains a partiton table.. which has information on the physical location of your data. When you shift delete, what happens is that the table gets updated to mean that the physical location of your deleted file is now free. This means that unless this physical location is overwritten by another file, the deleted file can be recovered using specialized software..

This kind of leftover data may impact your hard drive performance ever so slightly because overtime this and other factors introduce file fragmentation in your drive. Fragmentation is a phenomenon by which parts of a file is written in different physical location on your hard drive. So for example if you want to access an mp3, your harddrive head may have to move to non contiguous data sectors.

You can maintain contiguos files by running Disk defragmenter once every month.. you can access it from start -> all programs -> accessories -> system tools -> disk defragmenter.

Regarding program files, it is a totally different story. When you install programs, the installer does a lot of things like adding entries to your registry, copying .dll files to windows system32 folder, copying other required files, to c:\program files\ using temporary file space, adding unnecessary startup entries etc..

When you uninstall a program, most uninstallers don't do good house keeping after them, they tend to leave orphaned dlls lying around, unwanted registry entries, undeleted program file entries etc.

You can solve these issues by following these guidelines,

use a registry cleaner.. registry cleaning is a delicate task.
use a software that is not overzeleaous with the cleaning..
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/files/EClea2_0.exe
easy cleaner ^^^^ is good for beginners.

Delete the program file folder of installed application once you uninstalled them.

Use the disk clean up utility once in every month or so..
go to start -> run -> enter "cleanmgr" without the quotes and click ok.. enable all the check boxes and click ok..

Disable unnecessary startup programs.. These are programs that youv'e installed and that startup with windows in the background slowing the startup considerably.

go to start -> run -> enter "msconfig" and click ok

on the windows that pops up, go to startup tab and disable everything except your antivirus. Be sure to only disable what you don't need. You can reenable them just as easily.

Windows will ask you to restart and once youve rebooted, dismiss the prompt that warns you that startup has changed. and you are done. Your computer will be much faster now.

Answer 6

No, the file that gets deleted will still be on the hard disk somewhere. Even if you put that file into the recycle bin, there will still be remnants of it, and if not, then it may even be whole.

I'm not sure about the programs, though, I think they do get removed if you go through the uninstalling process.

Hope I helped. =]

Answer 7

They do stay on your computer, but they're not 'ghost files' in that they don't clutter your hard drive. They're essentially marked for overwriting, and whenever there's something to write onto the hard disk, the area of the hd where the deleted file resides is fair game.

That, of course, means that files you 'deleted' still reside on your hard drive, and can be recovered by programs designed to do just that. <-- Privacy and security nightmare.

Answer 8

When you delete a program from program files, it deletes the programs information it needs to run. So I am sorry to say you will need to reinstall your programs. In the future avoid messing around with program files and or the system files, which are located in the windows folder. Good luck in the future.

Answer 9

thats true if you did not do the right method of deleting files.
1st you need to click start menu click control panel, in control panel open add or remove programs. if you have vista click uninstall a program. select the files you want to remove.
then restart your computer, after restart open local disk c in my computer/or whichever disk programs are installed on. open the program files folder. right click the files folder you delete and select delete. you might not need to do this if you sucesfully done the first method. last is right click the recycle bin click empty recycle bin. then restart your computer. then your good as new.

Answer 10

Hi!

This is partly true, partly untrue.
True: they still exist.
Untrue: they have effect on your computer.

The deleted files (unless shredded by special software) continue to stay on your hard drive. Deleting is rather simple. The first character of the file name is replaced by "?" (a reserved character). Imagine: picture.jpg -> ?icture.jpg
Now, the OS knows that the file is deleted and, when needed overwrites its content and possibly name (when you copy a file). They are harmless, unless there's something you might want to hide. if this is the case, use a file shredder application.

Good luck!