Originally Posted by gfunkdave

Windows keeps a list of what files are on the computer and where they exist on the hard drive. When you empty the recycle bin, the files aren't actually deleted; rather, their corresponding entry is just removed from the listing of files, and the space those files occupy on the disk is marked as free for storing other files. So, if you use specialized software (like Recuva) you can see the files that have been "deleted" but still remain on disk.

When you use CCleaner to delete a file, it looks where the file is stored on disk and actually overwrites the file's entire location on disk, then deletes the directory listing.

So, you can use Recuva to recover your files and then use CCleaner to delete the file. YOu can also just use CCleaner to wipe all the free space on the disk, thus actually deleting every file that you have ever deleted by emptying the recycle bin.