In this lesson, let's talk about how to correctly delete information when working on a computer so that it cannot be restored later.
If you are not a hacker, a scammer, or an intelligence officer, you can reasonably ask a question - why do I need this? There can be many reasons! The most common reasons are selling a computer (or hard drive) to another person or ordinary sharing a computer. In any of these cases, our personal information may fall into the eyes of strangers and it is not known how it (information) will be used by them (strangers).
Secure file deletion using third-party programs
Firstly, this is the option “Free space for hard disk”, and the second is a file scrubber. When you clean free place on the hard drives, you overwrite the unused space that was previously used by other files. Hard Drive Shredder ensures that these utilities can no longer recover files that were previously deleted on your system. File assembly is a way to safely delete existing files on your computer. If you have files that you want to permanently delete, you can use this utility to get rid of the files so that they can no longer be received.
Some consider such thoughts to be paranoia, while others are sure that security is never superfluous and the protection of information from unauthorized access is brought to the fore.
In addition, it will not be amiss to remember where we live and keep in mind all kinds of adopted (or not yet adopted) laws "on the Internet" that consider anyone who stores pirated software, music, etc. to be guilty here. the user can be "attracted". But let’s leave for other sites discussions about the importance of personal security ...
What is the essence of irretrievable deletion
If you get rid of your computer, you must clear the free space. The following is a description of each of these types. Each pattern is a 512 bit data block block. This data is used to overwrite personal data that you permanently destroy. The above patterns are then located in the aisles to create different types of scrubs. Scrub types are defined below.
You can also change the user string used with the 6th pattern. There are various cases that lead you to intentionally delete certain files from your computer. From time to time, you may delete files so as not to fall into the hands of malicious people, your partner, or even other users. You can delete less important files to create more space or increase the speed of your computer.
It seems to me that to know this information in any case will be useful to everyone, and whether or not to use it, everyone will decide for himself, so let's get to the point!
Removing files from a computer is not as simple as it might seem at first glance, and especially if the question is about deleting files without the possibility of their subsequent recovery.
Can I permanently delete files from my computer?
Yes your deleted files can be restored. Permanent deletion of files does not really end, omitting the trash. Whenever you empty the trash, you simply move your data to a new directory. This means that your data will not be in the recycle bin, but it will be saved on your hard drive so that it can be restored again.
However, deleted files cannot be recovered by this data recovery software if you overwrite the files. Below are various ways to permanently store files with their walkthrough. There are free versions for this program.
Novice inexperienced users believe that deleting files occurs by moving it to Shopping cart on the desktop, sometimes without even knowing about the possibility of restoring a file from Baskets - they say, “I did delete the file, how can I see it?”
A little more “advanced” beginners know that Shopping cart can be cleaned, and then this file disappears (as it seems to them) forever. In fact, the file does not disappear, but is simply marked as empty by the system. Until over such a file is written new information, in hard memory drive it will be saved completely. The users who understand this question (I can’t say “newbies” anymore) know that such deleted files can often be restored using special programs, especially if you do it “in hot pursuit” (read how to do this in the lesson “ Recovery of lost data ”).
Once you have downloaded the program, install and run it. A quick process and a new pop-up window will appear after the completion of the process, notifying you that your file or folder has been permanently and permanently deleted from the hard drive. If you select the "Erase on reboot" option, the file will not be deleted immediately, but will be deleted when your computer reboots.
Show file or directory to be deleted
After installation, run the program so that it can perform its functions. In the Start menu, open the Run option. On the path to the file or directory context, enter the exact location of the file you want to delete. Commands showing the location of the files you have selected will be displayed on the screen.
Very many (even experienced users) believe that to completely delete information you just need to format hDD. However, this is not a guarantee of confidentiality! The formatting process does not delete the files themselves, but only makes changes to the area that is responsible for their storage (file table). Roughly speaking, formatting deletes the list of files (with names, location, etc.), but does not touch the files themselves. Thus, it will be impossible for an ordinary user to find files (because there is no list), and a specialist using special programs, can not only see, but also restore information.
After installation, run the program and continue to the next step. Open Permanent Eraser to activate the program. A warning message appears asking you to confirm whether you want to permanently delete files. On the bottom line, most users are not aware that emptying the recycle bin on your computer does not permanently delete the files. Only when their sensitive files fall into the hands of malicious people do they begin to panic. there is better ways delete your files completely and permanently, other than just emptying the trash.
For guaranteed deletion of information (in addition to physical damage hard disk) there is a variant of the hardware impact on the carrier using a magnetic field. It is reliable and very fast, but expensive, therefore it is used more likely by military or commercial structures for emergency destruction of classified data.
Unfortunately, this is not what happens all the time. Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure your files are permanently deleted. operating system just notes the space that they occupy as free for new things, so until something new appears, this data. This is a bit like writing a handwritten note with a thick black marker pen. Or at least this is true for traditional hard drives. State of the art solid state drives and flash memory in mobile phones do not work like that.
And in order to reliably erase a file at home, we can use special programs - the so-called shredders. The essence of the work of such shredder programs is usually to zero (replacing data with zeros) and then repeatedly write (over zeroed data) random numbers ("digital noise").
The meaning of the work of such a program is quite simple - you need to specify the file (or the entire disk at once) and then start the uninstall process. This process, unlike regular deletion, can take quite a while (depending on the size of the file or disk), because I repeat - this is not ordinary deletion (erasing the file name), but multiple recording of random information on top of the deleted data.
How to delete deleted files?
This is primarily due to the fact that applications do not have the same control over where data is written and overwritten. In addition, the safest option to ensure that they are gone forever is to keep your drive encrypted. With these caveats in mind, read on.
The file can still be restored by someone smart enough to install a professional data recovery tool, so on a traditional mechanical hard drive you will need a more complete tool to make sure that 1 and 0 were well and really wiped.
There are a lot of shredder programs on the Internet and everyone can choose according to their taste and needs. Some programs work only with disks (they immediately clear the entire hard disk or partition), while others allow you to delete individual files or folders.
If we talk about specific programs, then of the paid options I can recommend the program Paragon disk Wiper . Proven software developer (Paragon) has created a really good product for cleaning hard drives. The program does not work with individual files, but it is very useful to clean the hard disk before selling.
Point it to a file or folder, and it will overwrite it with random data, which should be enough to stop it from returning. There is also a scheduler tool that you can use to regularly clean certain hard sections drive.
After you run the executable file, just drag and drop the files you want to get rid of into the "Empty and Safe" window. If you have a solid state drive, then encryption is best. There are actually three ways to delete files. Everyone has another chance to be restored.
If we talk about free options, then I liked the program Freeraser about which let's talk a little more.
You probably heard about the permanent deletion of data (also called “safe deletion”), after which it becomes impossible to recover deleted data even using specialized information recovery programs. But when using this removal, not everyone remembers that in modern windows versions there are built-in information protection systems that allow you to return deleted data. In this regard, the question arises whether irrevocable removal effective? It turned out that in some cases it is completely useless and data can be restored without problems windows tools. What is the problem here and how to delete data without the possibility of recovery?
Data deleted, right?
What you need depends on your level of paranoia and the sensitivity of the data you delete. Also, if you don't want to worry about safe removal tools, you can get similar results by simply defragmenting your hard drive. Typically, the last sector in the chain used by the file is not completely populated. Any data that existed in this sector not covered by the new data will remain. Information was extracted from these trailing sectors from the installation disks. softwarelooking at pieces of old emails and documents from the original machine used to manage disks. Delete only mark the flag in this space as free. Do you find this a safe way to prevent recovery of these files? This is good if you accidentally deleted the wrong file.
What is the essence of irretrievable deletion
The basic principle of permanent deletion is to repeatedly overwrite the contents of a file with various “junk” data before directly deleting the file. There are several algorithms that are most often used for this. They differ, as a rule, by the number of cycles of rewriting file data. One uses one cycle, the other two, the third five and so on. They have one essence - to hide (spoil) the original contents of the file, so that when trying to restore it was impossible to get its contents in its original form.
Then you can just fish from the basket. If you do not want to undo deleted files, you can empty the trash and the files have disappeared - almost, but not quite. Even if you no longer see the files, the data stored in it is still stored on the hard drive. Using special data recovery programs, deleted data can usually be recovered completely or at least partially. Sometimes such data recovery, in the truest sense of the word, is the last salvation of important data.
Then you want to be sure that the data is no longer “saved”, right? To do this, you must permanently delete deleted data, as well as data that has already been deleted. In this case, experts talk about “shredding” the data. First go to the folder containing the files and subfolders that you want to delete and delete the selected data. A prompt window will appear. In addition, you can move with the mouse to access the input prompt. To do this, first click "Start", then "All Programs", and then "Accessories". You must specify the correct drive letter and the name of the folder in which you previously deleted the files and subfolders. Depending on the size of the storage medium, this process can take a long time. If you really want to delete the data, answer yes. . Hint.
An easier way to delete permanently is to clear free disk space. In this case, the file is usually deleted from the disk, and then, to prevent its recovery, data from sectors of the disk that are not fixed in file system for any data.
Under what conditions permanently delete does not work
Operating room windows system quite complicated thing and contains built-in mechanisms that allow you to recover accidentally lost file (cm. " ").
Under what conditions permanently delete does not work
If you do not know exactly where the data was deleted, simply indicate the drive letter. However, this method is very slow. However, the Federal Office for Information Security indicates that very small files cannot be safely removed this way and recommends using special removal programs.
Erasing normally over a paper basket is not enough!
Files using tools such as. . On computers, the file is usually transferred to the trash. From there, this file can be restored if necessary. Only by emptying the paper basket did the file seem to be definitely deleted. However, it is not! In the case of normal deletion, the areas of the hard drive where the file is deleted are not deleted, but simply freed. In the table of contents of the hard disk, the link to the file is deleted and the area is freed for use. In fact, the file still exists until another file is written to this free area.
If the function of automatically creating shadow copies of files is active in Windows (in Windows 7 it is activated in the "System Protection" section, and in Windows 8-10 it is implemented as a separate function "File History"), then you can use it to restore old version remote file and easily read all the contents.
Pay attention to the screenshot that shows the tab " Previous Versions"Of my desktop folder. You can notice at the bottom of the block “Earlier this year (243)”. This means that Windows remembers 243 copies of my Desktop folder, and I can restore any version of it. It is enough to find that version of the folder in which there is an original data file and restore it, a matter of a couple of clicks. In this case, “safe removal” will be completely useless.
Even if the entire hard drive needs to be removed, normal formatting may not be enough. However, the files are still present on the hard drive and can be restored using special tools. For this reason, you can recover deleted files that have not yet been overwritten. This can be very useful if you accidentally delete the file that you still need.
To safely delete a file or a full hard drive, you need special programs. These programs overwrite the area of \u200b\u200bthe hard disk on which the file was located, if desired also several times. This process will permanently delete data. If you canceled or sold your old computer, you must first erase the data on your hard drive. Finally, you don’t want your computer buyer to view your data, such as images and letters.
How to really permanently delete a file
If you want to permanently delete a file or folder, you should be aware of additional security features of the operating system.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to delete a single file from the history (at least under Windows 10, it can and can be under Windows 7), therefore, before permanently deleting, you will have to disable the shadow copy creation function by disabling system protection for the disk in the "System Properties" window in Windows 7 or by disabling the "File History" function in Windows 8-10. After that, you will need to run a regular tool for cleaning disks, where there is a section for cleaning called " User File History"(You need to put a checkmark in front of him). It is important to remember that all other copies of the files will also be deleted.
Permanently delete all files on the hard drive
Another way to destroy data is to physically destroy the data carrier. In the end, every computer user comes to the point where he wants to safely delete. However, this is often a serious obstacle, since in most cases files are not deleted, so they are irrevocable. To enable this, there are data overseers like. Anyone who wants to safely delete files should gain access to such a program. Fortunately, success does not even have to be costly.
After that, delete the data through Shift + Delete (bypassing the "Recycle Bin") and clear the free space on the disk either using the regular Windows command, or using a program like (" Service» → « Erase discs» → « Free space only»).
After that, we again activate the protective functions for automatically creating shadow copies of the data and continue to work with the system, as we previously worked.
