so your saying that deleting stuff in the windows wastebasket don't completely delete the item? Maybe I need to get something better....
Yes, and really, there is no need because what happens when you delete stuff is that it is sent to the Recycler folder, and as you write new data to the hdd, that old data is eventually replaced with the newer data. This is also what happens when you do a "quick" format versus a standard one that takes much, much longer. A quick format just does a quick sweep of the data removing the file information (such as names, extensions, and the programs associated with them) and then sends your data to the Recycler folder and "says" that it is formatted. If you hadn't written to the hdd since you have done this, then your data can still be recovered.
I used to do this whenever I had a corrupted file system or partition. I simply did a quick format, and then used File Scavenger, to recover my important files.
As you use your hdd normally, you will eventually replace the deleted data that was sent to the Recycler folder. This is why when you use data recovery software, they tell you to make sure that you place your recovered files on a separate drive or partition, and not the same as the one you are recovering data from.
Otherwise, you'd just end up overwriting the data you are trying to recover.
However, you should also know that no matter how you try to hide it, that your data can still be recovered as the programs developed for government and law enforcement agencies will always be much more powerful than the ones used for businesses and personal use. The ones that claim to be used by government agencies are full of shit.. as the ones used by these agencies are not even developed on a large scale or for distribution.
So on a scale of 1 to 10 for recovery software:
Personal use would be a 2 or 3.
Commercial or Business use would be 5 or 6.
Governmental or Law Enforcement use would be 10 and above.
The only way around this is if you simply bought a new hard drive every time you deleted sensitive info, and use that drive as your system drive where the partition is always being written to. I did that accidentally one time when my system became infected with a virus and I did a quick format but forgot to recover my important documents and downloaded files. A few years ago, I remember hearing about the case of this woman who was sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement, and got off because when they confiscated her computer, they could not find anything, because allegedly, she had bought a new hard drive. They had to let her go as they had no proof and the judge ordered them to pay her legal fees.
