Windows XP [Electronic resources] : Visual Quickstart Guide, Second Edition نسخه متنی

Deleting Files and Folders

When you delete a file or folder, it's not actually erased but compressed and stored in the Recycle Bin on the desktop (Figure 5.36 ). The Recycle Bin is a safeguard from which you can restore (undelete) items if you change your mind or delete them permanently.

To delete items:

1. In Windows Explorer or on the desktop, select the item(s) that you want to delete.

2. Choose File > Delete (or press Delete).

or

Right-click one item; then choose Delete.

3. If an "Are you sure?" message appears, click Yes.

Tips

You also can drag items to the Recycle Bin to delete them.

To suppress the "Are you sure?" message, right-click the Recycle Bin; then choose Properties > Global tab and check Display Delete Confirmation Dialog.

To delete selected items without sending them to the Recycle Bin, press Shift+Delete.

You can bypass the Recycle Bin so that all deleted files are erased immediately (good for using a public computer): Right-click the Recycle Bin icon; then choose Properties > Global tab and check Do Not Move Files to the Recycle Bin.

Some programs let you delete items within Open and Save As dialog boxes.

Items deleted from network drives and removable disks (such as floppies and USB flash drives) bypass the Recycle Bin, as do deletions via the command-line del and erase commands.

To empty the Recycle Bin:

1. Double-click the Recycle Bin icon (Figure 5.37 ).

2. To remove all items, choose File > Empty Recycle Bin (or click Empty the Recycle Bin in the task pane).

or

To remove some items, Ctrl+click each item to remove (or click only one item); then press Delete (or choose File > Delete).

3. Click Yes in the "Are you sure?" message.

Tips

The Delete command also is available in a Recycle Bin item's shortcut menu.

To empty the Recycle Bin quickly without inspecting its contents, right-click its icon on the desktop; then choose Empty Recycle Bin. (You can't suppress the "Are you sure?" message.)

Undead Files

Deleting files doesn't actually destroy their datait just makes them harder to find. When you empty the Recycle Bin, Windows doesn't erase files but, rather,

marks them as deleted, making them invisible to you and to programs but leaving their data intact on disk. Only when Windows later needs disk space will it overwrite deleted files with newly created ones. On a large or sparsely populated drive, deleted files may survive for weeks or months before Windows reclaims the disk space (unless you defragment the disk, which overwrites most deleted files).

To recover deleted files, use an undelete utility soon after you've emptied the Recycle Bin. Some popular ones are FileRestore ($39 U.S.; www.winternals.com), Undelete ($30; www.executive.com), and PC Inspector File Recovery (free; www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome).

On the other hand, use a

file shredder to make your files

un recoverable. File shreddersuseful if you're selling your PC or expecting an arrest warrantoverwrite deleted files or entire disks with random data. Shredders let you overwrite a few times (to defeat ordinary undelete software) or many times (to defeat an electron microscope). To shred files, try Eraser (free; www.heidi.ie/eraser) or Sure Delete (free; www.wizard-industries.com).

Note that Windows' format (formerly fdisk) command won't shred files. If utterly destroying your data is crucialyou know who you aresmash your hard disk and throw the pieces in a river.

To restore items from the Recycle Bin:

1. Double-click the Recycle Bin icon (refer to Figure 5.36).

2. Ctrl+click the items that you want to restore (or click only one item).

3. To restore items to their original locations, choose File > Restore (or click Restore the Selected Items or Restore This Item in the task pane).

or

To restore items to a specific location, drag them out of the Recycle Bin to the desired folder (in an Explorer window or on the desktop).

Tip

The Restore command also is available in a Recycle Bin item's shortcut menu.

The Recycle Bin stores deleted items until it runs out of space, at which point the items are removed automatically, oldest first, to accommodate new items. By default the size of the Recycle Bin folder is 10 percent of the hard drive, but you can change that percentage.

To change the Recycle Bin's capacity:

1. Right-click the Recycle Bin icon; then choose Properties (Figure 5.38 ).

2. On the Global tab, drag the slider to specify how much of each drive can be allocated to the Recycle Bin.

Tips

On high-capacity drives 10 percent is a lot of space. On a 100 GB disk, for example, 10 percent is 10 GB of junk. One or two GB should be enough unless you have a lot of music or video files.

The Recycle Bin's status bar (choose View > Status Bar) shows how much space the deleted items occupy.