Q: I have these files [not bad ones] that I really want to delete from my computer. I was wondering if the recycling thing for your computer COMPLETELY deletes the contents of my files? I heard somewhere before that it isn't true, and it is still stored in the harddrive or something. If it is not fully gone, can you tell me how to COMPLETELY delete it? Thanks in advance =] P.S. - Don't answer till you are absolutely sure.
A: When you delete something, it simply marks the area where it was stored as "being available again" Until/unless something writes over that spot again, you can still recover it with recovery software. If you want to SECURELY erase a file, you will need another 3rd part app. You can get Spybot Search and destroy which has a "Secure shredder" application that you can drag a file to and it will over-write the area(s) where the file is stored several times with random data so that the file can not be "recovered". http://www.safer-networking.org There are other "shredder" apps out there, but I know the one with Spybot works and even better, it's free... :)