File and Disc Shredder

Digital data is not as easy to delete as you may at first think!

'Deleting' a file through Windows® does not remove the file data from the disk - it merely flags that the space on the disk occupied by the file can now be reused in the future.

This reuse may happen soon, in a years time or never!

The deleted file remains on the disk until another file is created over it, but even after that, it still might be possible to recover some or all of the data by using special digital forensic techniques (perhaps studying the magnetic traces left on the physical disk surfaces).

File Shredder

QuickCrypto provides an inbuilt file "shredder" or "wiper" that permanently removes the file by overwriting the file data on disk prior to deleting the file.

It is required to do this every time you encrypt a file and don't want to leave the original unencrypted file alone. There's not much point in having an ultra secure encrypted file if the unencrypted source file is easily recoverable (unless of course the encryption is happening purely to protect a file in transit, e.g. across the internet, in which case it is reasonable to have the source file left alone and not deleted in any way!).

This file shredding (wiping) facility can also be used for securely erasing files without encrypting.

Free Space Disc Shredder

This though is not quite the end of the story. What if you haven't securely deleted files in the past that you do not want to be potentially fully or partially recoverable now?

Well short of destroying your existing hard disk and starting with a fresh new one (not as mad as it may first seem - if you have confidential data lurking on your disk - this may indeed be the best way forward), you have to shred and wipe the FREE SPACE of the drive.

As you will now know this free space may include many previously deleted files, just waiting to be fully recovered!

QuickCrypto also allows you to wipe this free space. Though this, again, isn't as easy as it may appear.

Data may also exist in free space (or at least space that could previously contain fragments or partial data of other deleted files) at the end of existing UNdeleted files on a drive - in so called 'slack space'.

Shred and Wipe - Securely Erase Free Disk Space

Free space shredding demands a lot of the disk drive being wiped. It is not recommended as a daily task!

If you also select to Shred the 'Slack Space' of every file on the drive and to 'Cross Cut' Shred the free space on the drive then the shed / wipe process can take many hours on a large drive and/or a drive with many files.

As an example a new Windows Vista PC with a 250Gb drive (i.e. with not much installed other than the operating system and a little user data) took 5 hours to complete a full "Shred Free Space" operation.

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