Are some files that show up in the Windows Recycle Bin of a fully formatted secondary drive linked to another drive or physically present?

1

I have a primary (boot) SSD and a secondary HDD (via a SATA-to-USB adapter) connected to my computer. My goal is to sell the secondary HDD without exposing any previous data that was stored on it. I just performed a format D: /P:0 via an admin cmd.exe instance on the drive. Afterwards, I noticed that Windows created an invisible System Volume Information folder on the drive. I then scanned the drive for recoverable files (with Recuva) and only found 24 system files. However, afterwards I noticed another invisible folder created at the root: Recycle Bin. After clicking on it, and then another Recycle Bin subfolder, I found a large number of personal files. I subsequently 'emptied' all these files, without trying to discern the origin (SSD or HDD). My guess is that this folder simply links all system recycle bins into one 'view,' as I performed a subfolder-scan with Recuva aferwards, and it only displayed desktop.ini (while 'emptied' files from the Recycle Bin are presumably recoverable).

Are some files that show up in the Windows Recycle Bin of a fully formatted secondary drive linked or physically present?

Wuschelbeutel Kartoffelhuhn

Posted 2018-04-25T16:58:37.020

Reputation: 1 240

1Where are files in the Recycle Bin stored, in respect of partitions? – Almost a duplicate: XP there, Win10 here. – Kamil Maciorowski – 2018-04-25T17:05:56.890

Note you wouldn't experience this issue related to Recycle Bin if you used a better tool. As far as I know format creates a filesystem. This was not your goal. Filling with zeros is just an extra (optional) effect of format. I'm into Linux, so I'll give you mostly Linux examples of better tools: shred, dd if=/dev/zero, ATA Secure Erase. My point is: erasing the drive without creating any filesystem would prevent Windows from creating any structures.

– Kamil Maciorowski – 2018-04-25T17:40:32.933

Why are you using format D: /P:0 instead of format D: /P:1? – RockPaperLizard – 2018-07-30T00:54:53.573

RockPaperLizard I think /P:x refers to additional passes. One pass is always done by default, unless the quick format flag is set – Wuschelbeutel Kartoffelhuhn – 2018-08-01T06:49:44.150

No answers

Asked: 2018-04-25T16:58:37.020

Viewed: 67 times

Active: 2018-04-25T16:58:37.020