Only the pointer to the file is deleted when you opt to delete a file in windows. The whole file still exists on your harddisk and its possible to recover it using the right tools. You probably have some files where you want to make sure that the file is deleted and not recoverable at all.
Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. The patterns used for overwriting are based on Peter Gutmann’s paper “Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory” and they are selected to effectively remove magnetic remnants from the hard drive.
[tags]eraser, delete files, secure delete, permanent delete, erase, trashcan, freeware[/tags]
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9 Responses to “Securely Delete Files”
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[...] I think its astonishing that three of six computers have been securely wiped. I would have estimated that most people do a simple format and think everything is securely deleted and no one is able to access their data anymore. If you want to securely wipe your data take a look at my article on the topic. ( Securely Delete Files) Del.icio.us: Bookmark on del.icio.us [...]
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[...] Eraser is another tool which could be used. [...]
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[...] Eraser is another tool which could be used. [...]
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[...] Eraser is another tool which could be used. [...]
umm… you guys should post up a utility to recover those files too :)
You can also do this with Spybot or Xplorer2.
you mean something like this ? http://www.ghacks.net/2005/12/09/data-recovery-freeware/
Have “Restoration”, now downloading “Eraser”. I’ll get back to y’all.
I personally suggest using DriveWasher by StompSoft. It meets the U.S. Department of Defense standards for disk sanitization so I feel pretty safe in assuming that I can count on it to get rid of my sensitive files. I’ve heard the free programs don’t really do what they’re supposed to.