How Can I Singly Wipe A Deleted File Of My Computer?

Question

hey, i was just wondering if i can simply delete my unused files that i deleted 10 years ago to free up space without wiping my whole hard drive clean.

Answer 1

if you deleted it 10 years ago, it is already deleted, and more than likely if you have used this pc at all in the last 10 years the part of the disk that the files were on will now have been written over with your current files. if the drive is well defragged and this part of the disc is still empty you can use a program like bcwipe to write over that part of the disc up to 36 times to completely get rid of any traces of previous files (handy if you are selling the drive on)  

Answer 2

If it was a program you can also go to regedit and remove it to clean that up. Just be careful deleting anything, if you don't remember what the program/file is type the name in google or whatever search and check what it is.

Answer 3

Hi David

If the files deleted 10 years ago are not causing any problems, it's almost 100% safe to delete them; in fact, it's straightaway advisable to do so to gain the valuable hard disk space and to free up the clutter that causes fragmentation, thereby slowing down your system.

Answer 4

Create a blank file and save it in the same program using the same name as the old file.  of course, you probably don't know the names of the old files any more.  But if they were deleted 10 years ago there is a very high probability that they were overwrittten long ago.

One thing you could do is to run a defragmentation program.  This will shift things around and overwrite the spaces filled by deleted files, which are still there but just hidden.

The only way to totally and permanently destroy an old file on a hard drive is to physically destroy the hard drive disk.

Answer 5

You can't delete anything that you already deleted 10 years ago! If you didn't already delete it, then surely you can delete it. Your question doesn't make any sense - Deleted files don't take up any space in your filesystem - they are marked as EMPTY space ready to be written over. If you require space, then you can buy 500GB SATA hard disks now (I just got one to go with my 320GB that came with the computer - use it simply for long term backup and storage). You really should check out the prices, 500GB now is the same price that 40GB was just a few years ago.... and faster and quieter and more reliable.

ccleaner is the best cleanup program out there if you need to clean up stuff not in the recycle bin in windows.

Answer 6

As long as this is a data file, not part of system or application, you can just straight away delete it