What does a file shredder on a computer mean? Secure file shredder. Recycle bin - spy's best friend

The program is released under the GNU / GPL Public License. This is a free program for personal and commercial use. runs on Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server and Windows Vista.

There are no minimum hardware requirements for its proper operation, however, on faster computers, the shredding program will run faster.
Installation File shredder
  If you have not downloaded the program, click to download latest version  . Save file_shredder_setup.exe to your hard drive and double-click on it to start the installation. By default, the program will be installed in the C: Program Files File Shredder. After installation is complete, the program will create groups in the menu Start - Programs - File Shredder  and desktop icon.

Nikolai: In fact, the programs you use leave traces of your personal information and actions in several places on your computer. Sites you visited, projects emailthat you wrote recently and other similar materials are just a few examples. All of this information may be more or less sensitive, depending on how often you use this computer.

Cleaning temporary data

Regular files, i.e. always visible, will not be affected. Files containing data of this type can be hidden in little-known directories, for example, or saved with obscure names. This question is not particularly important for your computerized documents, but it may be for data that is automatically copied every time you use your computer. Temporary files saved by various programs to help you recover your documents when the computer crashes unexpectedly before you can save your changes. These files contain, for example, text, images, spreadsheet data, and the names of other files. In fact, depending on how you use the computer, this file can contain almost everything, including web pages, the contents of certain documents, passwords, or even encryption keys. The swap file is not deleted when the computer is turned off. That is why you need to clean it manually.

Tips for Using Safe Uninstall Programs

  You may need to clean the entire storage device.

Using file program Shredder
Add File (s) - add file (s)  - Click to add files ready for shredding. The selected file will appear. Select one or more files and click Open - open. Files will be displayed in the main window. You can add files as you want. I note that adding files to the shredding queue does not delete them, and you can delete files from the queue.
Add Folder (s) - add folder (s)  - Click to add folders ready for shredding. The selected folder appears. Select a folder and click open. The folder will appear in the main window. You can add folders as you want, but you must add them one by one. The entire folder structure is added, including files and subfolders.
Remove Selected - Remove Selected  - Click to remove file (s) or folder (s) from shredding from the queue. Do not confuse this parameter with Shred Files Now, this option only removes files intended for shredding from the queue and they will not be changed, as well as existing files and folders on the hard drive.
Remove All - Remove All  - Click the button to delete all file (s) or folder (s) from the shredding queue. This option does the same as Remove Selected - Remove selected ones, but this will clear the queue. No changes to the files and folders on the hard disk will occur.
Shred free disk space  - free disk space  - this option will shred unused or free disk space on the territory of the entire disk volume. For example, this option is very useful if you do not want to delete unwanted files regularly, but instead you used the usual window to delete the command, and now you want your previously deleted files to be permanently deleted. These files can no longer be fragmented since they are already deleted. This option will bring to life all the shreds that you deleted once using the regular delete command, whether it was yesterday or a month ago.
Shred free disk space  - free disk space - After you have selected files ready for shredding, click on this button to permanently delete files. Attention: this option cannot be undone, make sure that you did not select files that were not intended for destruction by accident.
Program settings

Deleted files can be recovered.

When you sell or give old computerbetter remove hDD and let the new owner get a new one. And even if you hold the disk, you intend to reuse it or abandon it, it is recommended to thoroughly clean it. In the same vein, if you buy new hard  disk, it is recommended to clean the old disk after copying your data and creating a backup.

If you intend to abandon or recycle your old hard drive, you should also consider physically destroying it. Fortunately, this is not a maneuver that you will have to repeat very often. If necessary, you can write a new one to save the data you want to save. Of course, this is also the only way to “delete” the contents of an unwritable disc. Even if these stories are true, data recovery in this way requires a lot of time and knowledge. It is up to you to judge whether someone can spend so much energy and mobilize so many resources to access your data.

Enable Shell Integration  - enable Shell integration - Checking this option makes new entries when you right-click on a file and on a folder in Windows explorer. Records ”Secure Delete Files - safe deletion of files”, which will shred files, and to which you have the right to click on “Remember to be deleted last - Remember to delete the last”, which puts files or folders in the shredding queue and “Call File Shredder ”, which launches the application.
ConfirmationsConfirmations  - This group of options tells the program that it should display a confirmation window for some operations. To ensure inadvertent or accidental grinding.
Algorithms - Algorithms  - Select a chopping algorithm. You can learn about the algorithms used to shred files.
Visual Options - Settings appearance   - Select this function if you want to save the interface by hiding the top panel and if you want to launch the program as much as possible.

Generally, a good pair of scissors or a reliable chopper should do the trick. If you want to take extra precautions, you can throw away fragments of the destroyed disk in several different places, away from your desk. It seems like a very bad idea to me. Do people really do this?

You are right, this is a really bizarre idea! This may seem strange, but simply deleting the data does not permanently erase it. Overwrites files several times, which makes them unrecoverable. Anyone who can access your hard drive can easily recover such data.

Data Recovery Risks

We all heard scary stories about used ones bought on the hands hard driveson which there were a lot of personal (sometimes too personal) data left from the previous owner. Or (even worse) - stories about the interception of financial data, with which skillful thieves can actually destroy a person financially.

How do hackers use my data?

Anyone who has access to your hard drive can retrieve data in deleted files, such as family photos or even videos. In other words, this way you can ensure that your data has been completely destroyed.

Destroy Deleted Data

  You want to delete all contents hard drive? Scenario: the computer crashed, we transferred it to a specialized store to replace the hard drive or RAM.

Work with user interface and file shredder

In any case, we were wrong. This is a free application designed to perform a specific task, to ensure data deletion. And to create recoverable files, the procedure suppresses them more than once. The file must be dragged and dropped to the appropriate window, or we must click the "Add File" or "Add Folder" button. If you change your mind, you can delete files or folders from the list. One of the important features is the cleaning of free space. File Shredder overwrites everything free place  on the disk, which makes it difficult to restore folders and documents using any software.

You can say: “this will never happen to me”, “I always delete personal data”, “I format the disk before getting rid of it”. But not everything is as simple as you think. Usually the information that you allegedly deleted from your computer is stored on its hard drive in the future!

The fact is that with the usual “deletion” of a file (for example, after cleaning the Windows Recycle Bin), in reality it does not disappear anywhere. The contents of the file remain on disk until another file is written over it. The same thing (mainly) happens when formatting media. Most of the data remains available for recovery, only data on the availability of the disk is erased.

How File Shredder Works

Just select files and folders, tell the program to delete them after they are destroyed, and no recovery options. After their exposure, media data will not be restored. For example, you can, for example, have a date or an entire computer without fear of selling or throwing.

Why not just delete the data? Because the data on the disk still remains after deletion. The system uses only the so-called file header in the system, and the disk space on which the source file was saved is called free. However, the file is physically located on disk. And if someone repairs his head back, the file is restored.

Information Recovery Risk Prevention

To provide the most reliable protection against unwanted recovery deleted files, it is necessary to overwrite / delete / erase both the space occupied by these files and the free space. In addition, you need to delete the Windows swap file, which may also contain personal data that you would not want to give into the wrong hands.

Similarly, even when the disk is converted. From these disks, data is recovered much more, but it is. The principle of irreparable file deletion is contained several times over the contents of a file with random characters and its truncation to zero length. Only then does it come to the removal of the operating system.

The quick method is quick one-step grinding, overridden by a random formula. This method is at the lowest security level. This method, using seven shredders, is somewhat slower but safer. Peter Gutmann is the recommended method with 35 chopping stubs. He is very slow, but the most dangerous; it can also be used for compressed drives and for all types of standard hard drives.

- An ideal policy is to clean up free space on a regular basis. I believe that there is nothing complicated in the operation to destroy data on the hard disk after full formatting. To clear free space on large hard drives, a single pass of random data should be more than enough. For example, after one pass of filling with random data, PC Inspector File Recovery finds only a few files with a random data set.

You can also remove the so-called quick method. The program is easy to manage, and its further advantage is that it does not need to be installed. The tool for which it is available source, it can be modified and customized exactly according to our ideas. Old data does not help the multiple pass method, which reduces the risk of abuse.

The program is easy to use, data is stored in a special basket. He creates a bootable optical disk, which contains, in addition to the standard triple grinding, a three-bit type transcription type of Peter Gutman, but, of course, a simple decryption. Unfortunately, it only deletes all drives; individual files and folders cannot be deleted.

But on smaller disks, cleaners typically leave more files  with random data, and this data can be restored with a different level of probability depending on the quality of the deletion pattern.

- Since cleaning up hard drives from unnecessary data often takes a lot of time, some users use it to simultaneously perform a complete data destruction operation. But note that in this case, individual files and folders may not go through the cleaning procedure or irretrievable removal  data, because these processes may conflict with each other.

Three steps are taken to destroy data. No need to install anything in this software  for shredding data. Remain only on what data you want to destroy and start the process. Allows you to delete the selected files or folders. It supports four data shredding methods.

It destroys files, folders, and also changes the free space on the hard drive. Stay running and select the drive to drop it. There are many cases when you need to destroy data. Most often, the removal of data from computers and disks that you are going to transfer or sell to someone else, and secondly, this is the removal of storage media. The main reason for shredding data is always its more sensitive nature, so they should not fall into the wrong hands. In most cases, shredding data is controlled by companies and the government.

- One of the programs discussed below (Eraser) cleans the page file, but for this you need to change some windows settings. This can be done using the utility. Ultimate Windows Tweaker  (in her " Advanced settings») Or using this instruction. You can also make operating system  encrypt page file (Windows Vista and 7 only). To do this, follow these steps:

Central hazard is “residual information”

Let's see why the deleted data is not deleted, and let's just briefly describe the concept of residual information. This is the remainder after data deletion, which is usually deleted. In this case, the sectors on the disk on which the data was saved are marked only as empty, although the data on the disk still remains. This is because it is much simpler to simply delete the file from the directory on the disk and mark several sectors as empty, rather than overwrite the entire area several times with random data.

1. Open the command line (Run).
  2. Enter “fsutil behavior set EncryptPagingFile 1” (without quotes).
  3. Reboot the computer.

- If you need to erase the disk before getting rid of it, then the program Darik "s Boot and Nuke  (DBAN) is just for this, but be prepared to spend time installing and windows update  From scratch after that.

In fact, we never know how long and in what form the residual data is stored on disk. The system may overwhelm them, but they can still be read for a long time. Therefore, it is clear that there is no need to worry about files that do not threaten anyone. However, if you really want to give up truly sensitive data, you need to do it professionally.

In his articles and lectures, he focuses on topics of Internet services, technology, domains, and the media, emphasizes their strengths, and draws attention to possible future threats. In his free time, he is engaged in virtual art, and he is interested in everything from history, sociology and worldology.

Review of the best free programs  to permanently delete data