Data Shredder software

We use "eraser" and "o&o safe erase" to shred important documents on hard disk. Does anyone use another software in Windows for wiping, what are the advantages ? Thank you very much.

trante

Posted 2011-02-20T13:12:47.680

Reputation: 539

Software's' ??? Its software. – UltraInstinct – 2011-02-20T16:35:26.513

I use Eraser v 5.8.8, works so well, never considered another one. – Moab – 2011-02-20T17:49:02.527

Answers

SysInternals SDelete works on files as well as free space. It's a simple command line app, but it works as well as anything else for secure deletion of files. Also, see the previous question about secure deletion here. Also, about drive-level secure delete.

Just saw this item. Apparently, when an SSD is involved, existing data destruction techniques might not work so well.

Michael Kohne

Posted 2011-02-20T13:12:47.680

Reputation: 3 808

1"sdelete -z c:" <-- What I needed! Thx! – VenomFangs – 2013-04-09T15:53:40.280

Any ideas on how this works with Virtual Machines? – VenomFangs – 2013-04-09T15:57:05.917

Note that erasing single files on modern filesystem (for example NTFS/ext3/ext4) is not guaranteed operation. Only way to securely wipe files is to wipe whole disk. On related news, short article.

I would recommend adding disk encryption software (Truecrypt for Windows) to protect files. That way for example temporary files are protected too.

As of wiping tools, DBAN is nice bootable disk erasing software. Not what you asked for, but still sometimes useful.

I have used Disk Wipe which is GPL wiping software for Windows. Advantage: no installation (portable software, can run directly from USB memory, for example).

Basically almost all secure deleting softwares are implementing about same algorithms. Then licenses, price, easiness of installation and quality of GUI are major points.

Olli

Posted 2011-02-20T13:12:47.680

Reputation: 6 704