Why do we still use recycle bin? I suppose most of us don’t restore files
put in recycle bin or is it useful in recovering permanently deleted files?
In this excerpt from
Answercast #10, I look at how people use the Recycle Bin and its
usefulness to computer users.
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What about that Recycle Bin?
Recycle Bin has nothing whatsoever to do with permanently deleted files and,
in fact, the act of emptying your Recycle Bin IS permanently deleting
files.
Permanently deleted files
The only option you have to recover permanently deleted files is using tools
like “
Recuva, which examines the free space of your hard disk to see if it can
recover previously deleted files from that free space.
Why do we still recycle?
Why do we still use the Recycle Bin? I think you may underestimate the
number of times people make mistakes. It is not at all uncommon to delete
something and then wish you hadn’t.
The Recycle Bin is the perfect solution for that because it gives you the
opportunity to make that trade-off: to delete things without as much concern
and then only physically, truly, permanently delete them as a specific action
that you take later (or after a certain amount of time has passed or space has
been used).
So, no, I think a lot of people use the Recycle Bin to undelete files that
they’ve mistakenly deleted for any number of different reasons.
Next – Can I leave my TV hooked up to my PC through HDMI all the time?
Leo, you shouldn’t use the term “permanently delete” when discussing the “delete” feature found in Windows and other operating systems. It’s somewhat misleading. “Temporarily unavailable” would be more accurate.
I have a little freeware tool called “Disk Digger” that can grep any disk or partition within Windows and expose “permanently deleted” files and recover them. It’s so easy a 7 year-old could do it. Heck, it doesn’t even need to be installed. Just click on the executable and run it.
When I want to actually and truly permanently delete files I have another freeware program I installed called “File Barricader 2007” that has a delete feature built into the right-click context menu in Windows. This overwrites the data 3 times to permanently delete the file. Data recovery becomes impossible by any conventional methods. I can even right click on a disk or partition and overwrite the free space on that drive using File Barricader.
Think Leo 100% right on this one.
I myself, when certain all OK, delete the recycle bin with CCleaner (7 passes)
Would also advise to always delete Sandboxie with CCleaner or something similar. Otherwise I think your browsing history can be easily recovered.