How do I delete all photos forever?

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jolsterj

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How do I completely delete photos from my laptop?

When I do an Internet explorer search for photos they still appear to be there. But when I try and open them up it says

''file not found it could of been deleted or moved to a different folder''

Does this mean that these 1000 files I have are gone or still taking up space on my hard drive?

Please help if you can.:love:
 
It sounds like you have deleted them but I am a bit confused when you say you have done an 'internet explorer search'.

Internet explorer is a web browser

Maybe you mean you have done an explorer search?

If so, the results are probably recently accessed files (your photos in your case) and are just shortcuts to the originals. If you have deleted the originals then the shortcuts wont work, although will still remain until you delete them

Just go into the folder that the photos were stored in and see if they are there or not......also check recycle bin ;)
 
noneforit said:
It sounds like you have deleted them but I am a bit confused when you say you have done an 'internet explorer search'.

Internet explorer is a web browser

Maybe you mean you have done an explorer search?

If so, the results are probably recently accessed files (your photos in your case) and are just shortcuts to the originals. If you have deleted the originals then the shortcuts wont work, although will still remain until you delete them

Just go into the folder that the photos were stored in and see if they are there or not......also check recycle bin ;)
Click to expand...

the internet explorer search bit confused me too.

but what youre saying about recently used files sounds about right.
 
When you delete anything Windows just replaces the first letter of the file name with a random charater so the OS cannot find it. The data remains until something overwrites it. That could be soon or never.
You need a dedicated tool like Directory Snoop, for example, to permanently erase data with multiple overwrites.
 
Sorry I meant an exployer search........

Yes I believe they are shortcuts but I cant delete them is this normal....and is it taking up hard drive space?
 
Sounds they they are cached. Find your thumbnail cache and delete it. It depends what OS you have so cant give exact guidance. Thats why you can still see them.
 
I am on vista.

When I try to delete it wont allow me too...
 
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