How to delete without recovery. Deleting files without recovery (step-by-step instructions)
Sometimes it is vital to get rid of data so that it exists. Simply deleting it to the trash will not be enough - such data is easily restored. If you thought that formatting makes data recovery impossible, then you were wrong - it is quite feasible.
Moreover, even low-level formatting does not guarantee complete irreversible destruction of data. Of course, there is always the option of severe damage with a hammer, but you don’t always want to lose the entire device, and no one can vouch for the accuracy of the blow - what if the disk can be repaired? :-) In general, as you probably already understood, this article is devoted to the permanent deletion of data using software methods.
Some useful theory
There are plenty of articles on the principles of recording and storing information on a hard drive on the Internet and I will not retell them - if you are interested, then open, for example, Wikipedia. The only thing I will mention is that a deleted file from the hard drive does not really disappear anywhere and can be easily restored until any other information is written “on top of it.” Those. It’s not enough to delete a file and empty the recycle bin - something else needs to be written to the same block on the hard drive. But, as far as I know, even two or three rewriting cycles are not enough and information can be extracted. And if serious professionals get down to business, then, according to rumors and unverified data, information can be recovered even from a severely damaged physical medium, which, even for me personally, is beyond my head. However, that's not what this is about. So what to do with all these rewrites? After each deletion of information, sit and copy some gigabyte archive back and forth in the hope that it will overwrite the necessary areas? You can be tortured :-) And here comes to our aid...
We use CCleaner for these purposes.
Yes, yes, this is the one that I have repeatedly written about in my articles. This time he comes to our aid again.
The fact is that this wonderful program has such a function as " Clearing free space"It does not mean cleaning up garbage in order to free up free space, but rather cleaning up the free space itself, i.e. overwriting those very “empty” areas where the information you deleted was once stored. The goals are exactly the same as what I described above - make information unrecoverable by overwriting “empty” areas of the hard drive... with 0s.
How to actually turn it on? Yes, very simple:
That's all. For the future, if you still plan to keep information that should not fall into anyone’s paws, I strongly recommend creating a separate logical disk and keeping only these files on it, so that if you need to delete them, you can format the disk and start rewriting from above, and do not check the boxes for almost all disks (if the information was on different disks) and do not wait until all the free space is overwritten.
It's no secret that the most valuable thing today is information. Yes, with its help you can either make a fortune in a matter of hours or lose everything to the last penny. Although we do not have such data, unfortunately, everyone has important information.
This can be anything, from documents to personal correspondence. Therefore, it is very important to be able to transfer, hide, copy and delete information.
This is the main reason why we decided to consider permanent file deletion.
In this article we will reveal in detail the most popular methods that will help destroy information. You know that completely destroying information by simply deleting and formatting the disk is unrealistic. As a result, these files and folders are easily restored using special utilities and also using special applications.
Destroying data on your hard drive using the Eraser HDD program.
You don't need to be a computer science monster to learn how to permanently delete files from your computer, especially if you have a tool like Eraser HDD. The main advantage of this program is that it does not require installation on the machine. Moreover, this program is absolutely free.
2. Next, click the “Start” button. A list of available hard drives will instantly appear in front of you. Please note that the first column contains the hard drive number. You need to select the disk where you want to permanently destroy the information and remember the number that is assigned to it.
3. After this, enter the physical disk number and confirm your desire to destroy the data by clicking the “Apply” button.
4. Eraser HDD will ask you to confirm the action. And pay attention again!!! This is the last moment you have the opportunity to change your mind. If you confirm the deletion, wait for the following message to appear:
Congratulations, destruction of information on the hard drive was successful.
Auslogics BoostSpeed or how to permanently delete files from your computer
If you need to delete individual files without formatting your hard drive, use Auslogics BoostSpeed. Deleting information with its help will be as quickly as possible, see for yourself.
1. The first thing you need to do is download the program and install it on your computer. Launch it and in the main menu select “View”, where we click on “Tools”.
2. After that, in the “Confidentiality” group on the “Tools” tab, select the “Destroy files” link.
3. A new window opens in front of you, where in the “Auslogics File Shredder” menu we follow “Settings->Program Settings”.
4. The program will prompt you to specify “Options”. To do this, in the “Erase Settings” tab, if necessary: – set the “Perform additional erase” checkbox. This guarantees you a more reliable level of data removal. In the drop-down list called “Erase Method”, indicate the appropriate method for destroying information (at the bottom of the list you will find all the necessary information about each method separately). Confirm your actions by clicking “OK”.
5. Click “Add” and from the drop-down list select what you want to add for later deletion: files (specify “Add files…”) or folders (“Add folder…”). We chose to delete the entire folder. Note that you can also choose to delete files .
6. In the “Browse for Folders” window, specify the drive and folder you want to delete. Confirm your decision by clicking “OK”.
7. The selected folder is already in the list to be deleted. If you want to add several more files or folders, repeat steps 5 and 6. When the list is ready, click the “Erase” button.
After this, the deletion of the specified folders and files starts. The time for this procedure depends on the amount of information being deleted and the speed of the computer.
As soon as the data from the computer is completely deleted, a dialog box will appear in front of you, where it will be written - “Erasing complete”. Here you can see information about how many files or folders were deleted. Here you can also find a link to a detailed report on the process. To close the window you need to click on the cross.
As a result of simple steps, you were able to easily delete files from your computer using a simple and affordable tool - Auslogics BoostSpeed.
As you can see, deleting data is a simple process if you have the necessary software packages at hand. With their help, it is possible to delete not only individual folders and files, but also format the entire disk. Finally, we note that there are a lot of similar programs today, and their principle of operation is practically no different from those described.
Take care of the information and you will always be on top of your game.
The family of the most popular Windows operating systems is designed in such a way that it does not have built-in means of reliable (final, irreversible) deletion of data from the hard drive.
Simply put, deleting a file and then emptying the recycle bin does not actually erase information from the storage device, and any, even the simplest and free tool will allow you to recover all data with almost 100% probability.
What does this mean for the average user? With any act of transferring your hard drive to another person, be it a gift or sale, you risk that all the private information stored on this drive and prudently “deleted” will be available to the new owner.
Moreover, when using a data recovery tool, this person will be able to find something there that you yourself have already forgotten about, since you deleted some old files quite a long time ago, and then they will pop up again.
The peculiarities of storing data on hard drives have given rise to a whole science of intelligently deleting information without the possibility of recovery. At the same time, advanced means of recovery also developed, including for “interesting” situations related to violations of certain laws by people and organizations. In general, if the scenario goes further than a normal user situation, then you should not count on any programs - only complete physical destruction (sledgehammer + acid) will ensure the final disposal of information, and for simple scenarios specialized software will be enough.
We don’t think that for such a rarely used and specific task you need to buy some kind of paid product, especially since there are quite advanced free solutions on the Internet that have proven their effectiveness. We'll walk you through the process of securely deleting data using a free tool (DBAN). Its beauty lies in the availability of several disk cleaning methods, providing varying levels of removal reliability, as well as in the very method of its use.
DBAN is distributed in the form of an ISO image, which can be simply written to any disc, thus creating a boot disk.
The advantage of this approach is the ability to quickly and efficiently clean up even the system disk of a computer on which the operating system is installed, or to help another person by simply coming to him with this disk.
The simplest method of destroying a source file is to completely overwrite it with #FF bytes, that is, a bit mask of eight binary ones (11111111), zeros, or any other arbitrary numbers, thereby making it impossible to restore it programmatically using software tools available to the user.
Actually, this is what all modern utilities work from (hardware recovery methods may not help).
DBAN's interactive mode allows the user to select devices to clean. The desired disk is selected, after which it is necessary to determine the method by which the cleaning will begin (hints on the command keys at the bottom of the screen).
There are several options here, each of them provides a different degree of guarantee of irreversibility of recovery.
One has only to say that a wipe using the Gutman method is 35 data recording cycles, that is, a VERY long time. At the same time, experts (and Gutman himself) recognize the redundancy of such a number of cycles for modern disk models, so simpler methods like DoD Short will be sufficient.
When the disks and methods are selected, press F10. This will start the cleaning procedure indicating the current stage, write speed, elapsed and remaining time until the process completes.
Deleting files is a common procedure when working with a computer, which is used several times a day. However, simply by sending files to the Recycle Bin and emptying it, you leave traces of data on the system, which can then be used to recover deleted information. If you are not satisfied with this situation, then it will be useful for you to learn how to delete files without the possibility of recovery.
Normal deletion
Any user has sent files to the trash: to do this, right-click on it and select “Delete”. After this, the recycle bin is emptied, and unnecessary information seems to disappear from the computer.
Another way to get rid of an unnecessary file is to erase it immediately, without first sending it to the trash. To do this, you need to select it with the left button, and then press the key combination Shift+Delete.
A warning will appear asking you to confirm the action by clicking “Yes.”
You can configure deletion so that files are not sent to the trash in principle, even without pressing a certain key combination.
Now information will be immediately erased from the hard drive, bypassing temporary storage for deleted data.
Permanent deletion
If you deleted files and then emptied the Recycle Bin, then know that this information can be restored if desired. Fortunately, there are a lot of programs for performing such an operation, both paid and free.
The only way to completely erase information is to overwrite other data in its place. It is advisable to do this several times to completely destroy all traces of the deleted file.
You can't do this manually; but, with the support of special software, you will quickly perform the desired operation.
SDelete
To permanently delete data, you can use a utility from Microsoft called SDelete. This program operates through the command line, overwriting a remote file with random numbers.
- Download the utility onto your computer.
- Launch Command Prompt (press Win+R to open the Run menu and enter the command “cmd.exe”).
- Specify the path to the folder in which the downloaded SDelete utility is stored using a command like “cd C:\downloads” and press Enter.
- Use a command like “delete file path” to delete data you don’t need.
A message should appear on the command line indicating that the destruction of information was successful. After this you can close all windows.
Recuva
Recuva is commonly used to recover deleted files from a flash drive or hard drive. However, its functionality is often not used to its full potential, because with the help of this utility you can also erase information, leaving no chance of its recovery.
The first thing to do is to erase the files in the usual way, by sending them to the trash and then emptying it.
To delete data completely, you must first start the recovery procedure:
So, you have received a list of files that can be recovered. Now you need to destroy them, permanently erasing them from your hard drive.
Remember: the more rewrite cycles you specify, the higher the likelihood that the information will be completely and irrevocably deleted. Therefore, select 35 cycles at once and click “OK”.
Select the files you want to destroy, and then right-click in the main program window. Select "Securely remove marked ones." 
A warning will appear on the screen in which you need to click “Yes” to start the process of permanently deleting the information.
After the procedure is completed, run Recuva to search and restore files again. Check that the data that you have securely deleted no longer appears in the list. If they are, try the steps described above again.
Far Manager
Using this file manager, you can not only manage data stored on your computer, but also permanently delete it from your hard drive.
- Select the item you want to remove from your computer forever.
- Press the Alt+Delete key combination or select “Destruction” from the “File” menu.
- In the window that appears, confirm your intentions by clicking on the “Destroy” button.
If you delete one file, it will be destroyed immediately. When deleting a folder, another warning will appear, again asking you to confirm your intention.
Why can erasing data using the Far Manager utility be considered reliable? Because the file will first be erased with zeros, then renamed randomly, and only then will it be sent into oblivion.
Eraser HDD
Another convenient and functional utility that allows you to permanently get rid of unnecessary information is called Eraser HDD and is distributed as a portable application. The only drawback of this program is that it cannot delete individual files; You can only clean the entire disk.
Important: since the program completely cleans the disk (removing Windows and even itself), you need to run it from the second hard drive.
After confirming the removal of all data from the hard drive, a notification like this will appear:
By the way, in this way you can delete undeletable files without the help of other applications like Unlocker. Finally, another way to destroy data is to use the CCleaner program.
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How to erase data without the possibility of recovery
It is known that information is of great importance. Due to the spread of IT technologies, users store a lot of data on a computer, laptop, removable hard drives and other similar devices. But sometimes important files can be accidentally deleted, in which case you need to restore them. Find out how to recover deleted data from your hard drive here. However, sometimes important information needs to be deleted, on the contrary, and manipulations must be made so that even the most advanced hackers cannot recover the data in the files. Therefore, today we decided to look at ways to erase a file without the possibility of data recovery.
Methods for permanently deleting data
There are three ways to completely delete information from any device. The first of them is mechanical. It lies in the fact that the device from which information needs to be erased suffers mechanical damage, due to which it will not be recoverable. The essence of this method is simple - it is necessary to irreversibly destroy the working surface of the storage medium. Of course, this is the most expensive and crude method.
The second method is called hardware. In this case, the device is exposed to a magnetic field or radiation. This method is also quite expensive, and in order to carry out such a manipulation, you will need special equipment.
The last, quite effective method, which, moreover, can be done at home, is software. In other words, special software is used. We will consider this method of data deletion in more detail, since it is the most gentle with respect to the storage medium.
Problems deleting files
Before we talk about how to permanently delete data files, we should say a little about what exactly happens during the process of erasing information. Sometimes it happens that a file cannot be deleted; what to do in this case, read this article. Once you delete a file, the operating system does not physically remove it from the disk. It only marks it as deleted, performing the corresponding operations, including freeing the clusters that belonged to it and file records.
A cluster is a group of adjacent sectors with which the system conducts operations as a whole. A file record describes file attributes and the placement of clusters on disk.
So, after you delete the file, the clusters become free again, which is why they are used by other, newly created files, which over time overwrite their predecessors. However, this may not happen soon. In addition, small pieces of information may remain intact, but in some cases it is important not to leave absolutely any data.
Recovery with Recuva
Let's turn to the Recuva program, which makes it possible to restore and delete data. There are both free and paid versions of this utility. Download this program only from reliable sources, as when downloading the program you may “catch” a virus. Therefore, it is important to install an antivirus program before downloading. Find out what antivirus programs there are here. So, first we just need to remove unnecessary information. To do this, files are selected, and then the Shift+Del button combination is used. In this situation, Shift is designed to ensure that information is not temporarily placed in the trash.
After the manipulations, we open the Recuva program and search for deleted files. In the window that appears, click the “Go to advanced mode” link, from where we go to Settings.
Here we need a Secure Delete button. You need to select as many rewrite cycles as possible. The higher this number, the greater the likelihood that data will not be recovered. Although, of course, the procedure can take a long time.
You can check how securely the information was deleted if you use the same program, but restore the files. If the utility reports that this is impossible, you have done everything correctly.
Eraser HDD program
Another application that is used for data recovery is Eraser HDD. This program is distributed free of charge. In addition, the advantage of the utility is that it is not required to be installed on your computer. This program is easy to use and quite effective.
How exactly to delete information is up to you to decide, and we have suggested ways to do such manipulations. There are quite a lot of programs that are designed to completely delete information on the Internet. They are commercial and freely available. At the same time, they will not harm the device while performing all the specified actions, so you don’t have to worry about the safety of your computer or laptop.
computerology.ru
Deleting files permanently
The topic of today's article is somewhat unusual. Today we will talk about how to permanently destroy data. Destroy them so that they cannot be restored even with the help of special programs or research hardware systems.
Deleting a file is not enough
Regular readers of our site already know that simply deleting a file is completely insufficient from an information security point of view. Deleted files (with rare exceptions in the form of SSD drives) can be restored within just a few minutes. This is due to the fact that when deleting a file, Windows does not destroy its contents, but simply makes a note in the file system that the file has been deleted and the disk space it occupies is free. Accordingly, the deleted file can be recovered using easy-to-use tools - for example, Hetman Uneraser.
Disk formatting
The very fact of the existence of tools like Hetman Partition Recovery is a good indicator that formatted partitions are far from a guarantee of data security. In fact, with the exception of the same SSD drives, formatting a partition in “fast” mode (and in older versions of Windows, formatting in “full” mode) does not erase data, but only resets the file system. Accordingly, data after such formatting can be restored.
However, it should be noted that completely formatting a disk using Windows Vista and Windows 7 will still overwrite the contents of the disk with zeros, and formatting an SSD disk in any way will most likely (but not completely) lead to the destruction of data.
Data destruction programs
There is a whole class of programs designed for reliable and safe destruction of information. Such programs use arrays of random numbers to physically overwrite the disk space occupied by the file being destroyed. Some security standards (such as those used by the US Army) require multiple rewrite cycles and insist on the use of cryptographically strong random number generators. In practice, it's more like shooting sparrows from a cannon. For private users and most commercial organizations, a single rewrite cycle will be enough.
Finding such a program is easy - just search for the keywords “secure file deletion.” Free disk space is erased in a similar way - even the same programs are often used.
It should be noted that these methods only work with traditional magnetic drives, in which unambiguous addressing of the physical space on the disk is possible. In the case of SSD drives, this is not the case, and the destruction of information on them is a separate and rather little-researched topic.
Destroying data on CDs and DVDs
When getting rid of old backups, be sure to destroy the data. The easiest way to destroy information on a CD or DVD is to physically destroy the media. Do not give in to the temptation to break the “blank” with your hands - you will most likely cut yourself with fragments, and small fragments of plastic and aluminum substrate will be found in the most unexpected places for a long time.
The easiest way to destroy disks is to use an office shredder equipped with a CD and DVD receiver. In addition to them, there are also specialized devices - by the way, they are not at all as expensive as one might think. For most purposes, it is normal to cut the disc into four strips.
There are also devices that render disks unusable by drilling several holes in them (by the way, you can make holes in the disk yourself using a regular drill). Experts consider this method less reliable compared to using a shredder.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the manufacturers of secure information storage devices. DataTraveler and Silicon Power offer USB or hard drives that store information encrypted. To destroy access to the data of such devices, it is enough to delete the decryption key. Hard drive data recovery software will not be able to decrypt the contents and will be absolutely useless.
We can also mention the heating of the disks, leading to the destruction of the translucent information layer. Like other methods, this method should be used only in specialized devices - overheated “blanks” can quickly melt.
HetmanRecovery.com
How to permanently delete files
If you read my article “How to Recover Deleted Files,” then you already know that physically deleting data from your computer is not that easy. They are quite easy to restore later. Today I will teach you how to delete files without the possibility of their subsequent recovery.
Some readers may wonder why this might be needed at all. The reasons can be very different. But the most popular option is selling an old computer (or simply digital media, such as a flash drive or hard drive). After all, few people want personal documents, photographs or videos to fall into the hands of strangers.
And some users also store files with passwords from various Internet resources on their computers. Imagine for a second that someone had the data to access your account on the Yandex.Money project or something similar.
Meanwhile, it is quite possible to delete data so that it cannot be restored. For this we need special software. The principle of its operation, as a rule, is that it clogs clusters with fragments of a file that needs to be deleted, with arbitrary information. That is, it physically overwrites it. As a result, even if the file is detected by the recovery program, it will not be able to restore it.
Since free programs are our priority, we will turn to the already familiar Recuva program, which has a free version and can not only recover deleted files, but also reliably deletes them.
So, to securely erase data, first we simply delete it. To do this, it is best to select the files to be deleted and press the Shift+Del button combination. Using the Shift key allows you to delete a file without placing it in the trash.
Now we launch the Recuva program and look for the files we deleted. How to do this is described in detail in the article “How to Recover Deleted Files.” But we won’t restore them.
Perform the procedure for searching for deleted files, as described in this article (it is better to search not in a specific folder, but across the entire disk, since the file may have previously been moved). You should get a list of deleted files. Click the "Go to advanced mode" button.
The window will change appearance. As you can see, the “Settings” button has appeared. Click it.
In the settings we are interested in the “Secure removal” item. We must select the number of cycles to overwrite deleted files. The more of these cycles, the greater the guarantee that the deleted file cannot be recovered, but it will take longer. In my opinion, it is better to play it safe and choose the maximum number of cycles. After all, we need a positive result, otherwise why would we even take on this, right? We select the parameters that suit us and click “Ok”.
We mark the files that we need to securely delete, right-click and in the context menu that appears, select the “Securely delete marked” item.
When asked whether we really want to destroy these files, we answer positively. And we wait for the procedure for securely deleting files to complete, after which we click “Ok”.
That's all. To check how everything went, you can try to recover your data using the article “How to recover deleted files”. Moreover, if you have used a small number of rewrite cycles, I highly recommend doing this to ensure that your files are truly securely deleted.
If the recovery process fails, then you did everything right. If some files were nevertheless recovered, repeat the procedure again, not skimping on the number of rewrite cycles.
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They will help you forever erase files without recovery - free program with Russian language support allowing permanently delete information from the hard drive. File shredder includes three levels of secure data erasure - fast, reliable and uncompromising. In the last uninstall mode the program will overwrite and overwrite the space occupied on the hard drive of the deleted information until you stop the deletion process.
Reliable program for permanently deleting files
After installing the Freeraser program, a recycle bin appears on your desktop, which can be easily moved to any location convenient for you on the monitor screen. Freeraser supports Drug And Drop function to delete files permanently, just drag them to this trash can and confirm deletion. Also permanent deletion of data available from the program menu, opened by right-clicking on the Freeraser basket.
"File shredders"or whatever else they are called" file shredders" are the same indispensable assistants as regular document shredders. You also move deleted files to the trash, but you no longer worry that someone will someday recover the deleted information and use it.
Official site: http://www.freeraser.com
OS:
Windows All
Supported languages: Multilingual platform including Russian
Version: 1.0.0.23
License:freeware (for free)
File size 1.9 MB
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