Deleting files - FOR GOOD?

I have deleted files, then deleted out of the recycle bin

How can I make sure these files are gone and someone can not recover them....or do the recovery too easy?

is there a program I can acquire for free to do this or what can I do?

thanks

 

Eraser

 

I agree with WhitPhil about Eraser, but if you don't mind paying and want to also remove your Web history, (if you use Internet Explorer every view of every website you have ever visited is stored in a file called Index.Dat) then have a look at Evidence Eliminator.

 

CCleaner performs the same function for free.

 

on Eraser.....downloaded the program, read the instructions but dont quite understand how it works?

I have deleted file to the recycle bin, then deleted the recycle bin contents.....Now have Erase program but dont know what to do with it?

 

jpopescu, if you read the help file of Eraser it will tell you to Select "On Demand" as your User interface.
Then on the Main Menu Click on File>"New Task", this will display 3 options, the first option "Unused Space On Drice" is the one that you want.
Select Drive "C" and then on the Main Menu click Task>Run Task.
It may take quite a while to run if you have a large disk drive so it might be better to run it "overnight".

WhitPhil, thanks for the heads up on CCleaner, I have down loaded it and it definitely clears Index.dat.
I have Index.Dat Viewer and checked it before and after CCleaner had run and it didn't clean it, because it can't, it is in use by Windows. I then Restarted the computer and "hey presto" one clean Index.dat. It is now on my list of recommended Free Programs, along with the aforementioned Viewer and Eraser.