How do I totally delete a file of my PC?

Question

I've deleted the file then deleted it from the Recycle Bin but how do I totally get rid of it? Thanks

Answer 1

Defragging  will get rid of most of it from there. Even still, it is not easy to completely erase something...that is just the nature of deleting. When you delete something, you aren't actually deleting the item, you are deleting the reference that points to it. With nothing pointing to it, the computer will see it as free space and write over it. Defragging will cause the system to write over it a bit, but parts of the file can still be retrieved by a few pros out there....still, it's not easy and you need some pretty fancy equipment to pull it off.

Defragging is a system utility...find it in Accessories

Answer 2

Use one of the undelete utilities to recover the file. Something like  undelete plus should be adequate.

http://undelete-plus.com/

Then get get SDelete v1.51 from Microsoft Technet and wipe the file for good. Download here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysin...

SDelete implements the Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DOD 5220.22-M with should be adequate for most people.

An alternative to sdelete is eraser which can be found here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/