Removing unwanted item from pc HD

[cornelius]

I have an unwanted item on my pc which I have tried to remove with a clean-up program; but the program says it cannot overwrite because the item is resident in the MFT. Can anyone tell me how I can solve this problem please? Thanks!

[Guest Wolfeymole]

If you start messing with the MFT (Master File Table) you can seriously screw Windows.

 

What is the item?

[cornelius]

Thank you| the item seems to be a trace of a search nearly a year ago. It looks as though I will have to let ist stay where it is. I found it when I recently installed a recovery program.

than you for your reply.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Can you give us more information as to what is actually happening Cornelius please.

 

We have scant information to go on here so please be more specific.

[cornelius]

I recently installed a recovery program and one of the items shown appears to be a search trace made almost a year ago.

When I tried to remove the item I was told that it was resident in the MFT and could not be overwritten. It seems to have found its way there via Notepad.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Cornelius you said this in post 1.

 

What was the recovery program, why did you not use the XP disk or Recovery disks made if you did not have the XP disk?

 

Again what is the item you talk of?

 

Which registry editor did you use?

[cornelius]

The recovery program (RECUVER) and is the sort which recovers deleted programs and one thing it came up with appears to be a search item which was made some time ago. I do not know anything about registry editors.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

You said this;

 

I have an unwanted item on my pc which I have tried to remove with a clean-up program

 

Most people associate clean up programs and registry editors as the same thing.

 

May I ask once more, what is this item you talk of?

 

We are kind of getting no where fast on this through sporadic information Cornelius mate.

 

Can you please answer all questions that are put.

[Goku]

Hello Wolfey. Cornelius appears to have recovered a past remnant of a program that is residing in the MFT sector through a recovery program. There is nothing unusual about it and this is a common query as users want to clean the past files and programs so that they are rendered unrecoverable.

 

Cornelius, to remove that particular piece of data and other ghost items, you can use the nifty little utility called CCleaner. Install the program and open it. Check all the items you want to remove and especially the last box that says Wipe Free Space and press the Run Cleaner button. If you want advanced security, you can go to the Settings tab under Options and select the Secure Deletion method.

 

Please note that the process may take some time depending upon the type of deletion method selected and the size of your hard drive(s). And stay away from the Registry section of the program as it can seriously mess up things unless used with caution.

 

Feel free to ask back if you did not understand anything or found my instructions vague. We will be happy to sort you out. Hope that helps. :)

 

-- Goku

[cornelius]

Thank you very much for your reply to my enquiry about removing an item which is resident in mft. I have the excellent ccleaner and Steganos and Destroy-it. I have run them on the deepest settings which has sometimes taken all night. The recuva prog. has a facility to delete any item it finds, but on trying to use this it comes up with "cannot overwrite the item it is in the MFT" The item referred to was the classification heading to a list of subjects as found down a seperate section on one side of a site advertising books. It is only this heading which found it way into the MFT.

[wellies]

A program called 'Eraser' (free) says it removes mft leftovers. Note the top tick box.

 

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u78/Mart44/marts-graphics/eraser.gif

 

I have tried it and found that after free space was erased, the Firefox URL bar and other toolbar fonts were using Courier. A bit worrying but this sorted itself out after a re-start of the computer. Nothing else untoward noticed. I first tried Eraser when someone on another forum asked if emptying Sandboxie's sandbox really deleted the files/malware within it (see the Sandboxie page). I'm not sure if it would do what to want. I'd thought I'd mention the program so that it could be commented on by others.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi cornelius, if that entry in the MFT is causing no problem, as I think it shouldn't do, why are you insisting on risking serious damage by trying to remove it? leave it alone is my advice, there are many other odd bits of previous program uninstalls lurking in all sorts of odd places that in most cases are harmless, but are there in many computers including mine. Some I have left alone as they could cause problems if I tried to remove them.

 

Next is a thanks to Welies for the link for "Eraser", that connected to "Sandboxie" for those who use it may well be of some help.

I wait for replies from others on this, as some expert opinion is devided regarding Sandboxie, and other overwriting software.