F-Secure Booster - Prevent File Recovery

SA31

Does this product actually work?

Several times I have had my computer on for upto 14 hours with say 15k of deleted files to be removed. I have had to switch my computer off to go to bed. The following day the "Resolving Prevent File Recovery" shows an increase to 17k of deleted files. 

At the moment the progress indication bars have been stuck on the 6th out of 7 bars for the last 4 hours and the "Resolving P F R" wheel keeps on rotating without any indication that it is doing anything.

Does this programme permanently delete files progressively or does it only delete them when the progress bars turn to green. They have never turned to green in the previous 20 attempts.

Simon

Much as I like F-Secure products, I have to admit that I tried Booster once and decided it wasn't for me. It would have taken literally days to complete all that it wanted to do, and I also didn't like the nagging pop-ups saying this and that needed attention.

 

I further didn't like that much of the time, it wasn't really clear on what it was cleaning / deleting, so it was more of a worry for me than a help, although, I have to admit, it did initially speed up my boot up time, and this 'stuck' even after I had uninstalled the program.

Sorry, I know that's not a direct answer to your question, but I just thought some feedback from another user, albeit a temporary one, might be useful.

SA31

Thanks for your reply. I am glad someone else was having the same problem. Other programmes indicate the progress in terms of files deleted and if you shut the programme down before it completes at least it shows that it has deleted some of the files. This Booster programme actually increases the number of files to be deleted permanently if you have to close the programme prematurely.

Simon

To be honest, I probably didn't give it a fair chance, but I'm not a fan of those sorts of utilities anyway, as some of them can often do more harm than good.

I can't help but have a gut feeling that I'd prefer F-Secure to concentrate on developing top notch security products, rather than wandering into the already well trodden path of 'booster' type utilities, many of which have a poor reputation, and I'd hate for FS to be tarred with that same brush.  But that's just my opinion.

[Deleted User]

Hello,

 

Thank you for your honest feedbacks and opinion.

 

@SA31 the process of rpeventing file recovery is so that it needs to be started from scratch at every attempt. You can find more details in this article.

SA31

The point I was making is that there is no proof that files have been prevented from being recovered. There is also no indication of the remaining time to complete the operation. There is no indication of the number of files left to be removed when you switch off the computer. I refer you to a programme called CCleaner which states how many flies are to be removed and if you cancel the operation during its run it tells you how many files are left to be removed. This "Booster" programme seems to add to the initial total of files to be removed if you have to turn your computer off during during its operation. Until there is some indication of the time left, I have no intention of leaving my computer on in the hope that the programme will end sometime within the next seven days.

SA31

I will be removing this programme and will not be renewing it until I get some proof that it is actually doing something. Until then I will consider it to be a con.

tomcat3

Prevent file recovery just keeps  running & does nothing. The files just keep increasing. I don't know why I have to post this on a forum. It would be nice if you could question somebody from f-secure. So far I'm not to impressed with this booster. & i see I'm not the only person with this problem. Frank

[Deleted User]

Hello SA31,

 

Prevent File Recovery does take a longer time to complete by design. The reason is because when you delete a file in Windows, the file is not permanently deleted, even after emptying the recycle bin. Windows simply marks the file as being deleted and allows it to be overwritten by other data. It can take a while before the data is acually overwritten.

 

You can use the Prevent file recovery function to delete files permanently so that they can no longer be recoved by other people or programs. When you start to "shred" these files, it can take a long time as the size of the data can be quite large, and the software has to overwrite the data with random information to completely erase it.

 

Best Regards,
SeanV

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SA31

What a load of rubbish the technical staff post. Where is the pictorial evidence that this programme is working? I would expect to see something like 2000 files to be secureley over written and a countdown of those that are being over written. As I have said before there are more files to be over written when I have to switch my computer off after 14 hours because there are no signs that it is doing anything and then switch it on the next day despite not having accessed anymore files. Explain that.

WH

I understand that it takes several hours to completely shred a shed load of files.  After paying out for a product I expect it to do as advertised.  I have let Prevent File Recovery run to the end on several occasions but it never gets rid of all files!  For example it informed me that I had over 7,000 files to be subjected to prevent file recovery.  I let the process run to the end, which took approximately 8 hours to complete.  After rebooting I ran F-Booster again, and it informs me that 5,531 files for prevent file recovery!  Why were they not all deleted? From the forum this seems to be a common problem.  F-Booster what are you doing about this issue?  I feel that I have wasted my money on this product, and unless this issue is fixed, I will not be renewing the subscription. 

SA31

Had the same complaint. No one from the technical team could or would provide a solution or an answer. I have since cancelled my subscription and have gone over to Kaspersky.

SA31

Also I have subscribed to Ccleaner Professional which seem to solve the problem of deleting files securely

WH

An update on Booster...

I had 5,531 files for prevent file recovery after 6 hours I closed, re-opened Booster run it and reported 1227 files for prevent recovery.  OK some improvement, so I let it do it's thing which took approximately 7 hours to complete.  Closed, re-opened, run again and this time only 2 files for prevent recovery.  Things were looking good so I let it do it's thing again, expecting it to be completed in a few minutes.  How wrong I was, it took at least another six hours! Repeated the routine, but still two files for prevent recovery.  At this point I decided to re-boot the PC.  After running Booster again it reported 1368 files for prevent file recovery.  This leaves me with a total lack of confidence with F-Secure products.  Since this is the only means of contact /customer support how do I get a full refund on this product which does not work?

Noggin

I have just restarted my pc to update it and there are immediately 904 deleted files that need deleting by prevent file recovery. This is after it has been cleaned for over two hours. Can anyone explain this.

[Deleted User]

Hello Noggin,

 

As mentioned on the previous page, the process of preventing file recovery is so that it needs to be started from scratch at every attempt. You can find more details in this article.