--- title: "Four ways to get the gigabytes back · DuplicateDuster" description: "What happens to a copy in each of the four reclaim modes." url: "https://royalsoftworks.com/products/duplicate-duster/how-it-works/reclaim/" source: "https://royalsoftworks.com" format: "markdown" note: "Markdown rendering of the HTML page at `url`. Same content, same canonical URL." --- How it works · 2 of 3 # Four ways to get the gigabytes back. What happens to a copy in each of the four reclaim modes. Reclaiming the space ## Four ways to get the gigabytes back. Deleting isn't always what you want. Sometimes the copy has to be unrecoverable; sometimes it needs to stay exactly where it is, under its own name, without costing you the disk space twice. ### Recycle bin default The copy goes where the OS puts deleted files. Reversible for as long as you haven't emptied it — which is why it's what the app starts on. ### Permanent delete opt-in Straight unlink, no bin. For the case where the recycle bin is the problem — a drive that's already full and can't hold the deleted copies too. ### Secure erase opt-in Three overwrite passes (0xFF, 0x00, random), the filename scrambled through several renames, timestamps zeroed, then unlinked. On Linux it hands off to shred where available. ### Hard link opt-in The copy is replaced by a hard link to the original: both filenames survive, both paths still open the file, and the duplicate's blocks go back to the filesystem. Same volume only — checked before anything moves. **The honest caveat on secure erase:**overwriting assumes the bytes you write land on the bytes you meant to destroy. On SSDs, wear levelling and TRIM mean that isn't guaranteed. This raises the cost of recovery substantially; it does not promise erasure on flash storage, and full-disk encryption is the real answer there. We say so in the app too. [Previous Nominate the two sides.](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/duplicate-duster/how-it-works/nominate/) [Next The fastest hash is the one you never compute.](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/duplicate-duster/how-it-works/hashing/) [All of DuplicateDuster how it works](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/duplicate-duster/how-it-works/)