Overwriting free space to delete old files permanently

Question

Information Security

I'm trying to permanently delete once deleted files. Tried Eraser, CCleaner. In both cases, the data can still be recovered by R-studio even after 3 overwrites.

I restore in this way, select deleted files by type - Documents, find some .txt marked as deleted, do the restoration, go in and look, it opens, such a normal document is quite readable inside.

Has anyone done something like this? How to delete old files permanently to be sure?

Now I'm experimenting on the HDD, as it turns out, I would like to do the same on the laptop, there is an SSD. Immediately the question is, is the process the same?

Formatting the drive is not an option. Basically, all the data was on the desktop, but I don’t want to interrupt Windows and rearrange all the software.

Answer 1

As far as I know, there is no reliable way to delete data from an SSD using the SSD itself. It reassigns the addresses of physical blocks and programs can end up overwriting the wrong blocks they would like.

Answer 2

Eraser is a simple program, fully suited to your task.

Answer 3

Why reinstall?
Make a copy of the necessary files (and the OS itself), then low level format, and restore the system and bootloader.

Answer 4

What prevents to hammer the screw entirely with the left files, and then to delete them? After that, there will certainly be nothing to restore.

Answer 5

And in the notorious R-Studio there is a utility that is guaranteed to delete files, won't it work?

Answer 6

It is unlikely that you have something of such a level of secrecy that will be restored by special services in special laboratories.
And I read that in one of the Kiev data recovery centers, data is perfectly readable. who went through several such erasures with random patterns and zeros on the screw and low-level formatting.
So the best way is plates and electronics in a bucket of acid ...
about SSD is still sadder, because. It has already been described above that writing a block there = reading it, collecting another pack of blocks for writing and writing these blocks in a crowd somewhere else

Answer 7

I recommend overwriting everything you can, then filling the entire disk with files to the eyeballs - and then scoring what could be left there.
Over time (if it's an SSD), all your data will be overwritten in the process of using the disk.
Data security issues are approached differently.
There are hard disk encryption programs. You enter the password before booting the operating system and the data cannot be recovered in the off state. When new data arrives on the drive, it is encrypted in the background. No significant changes in the performance of the computer in this mode have been noticed.

Answer 8

Good bedtime story.