Shredder

[Hola hoop]

Just wondered if any of you out there can recommend a free file shredder (non trial) if there is one? I have tried various trial only ones, but would like a for keeps-recommended-version.
If there are no free ones, what is the computing communities recommendation for a good, well rounded file shredder?
:t

[MJCfromCT]

http://www.google.com/search?q=file+shredder&sourceid=firefox&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

I've tried the first one before, seemed ok to me.

[The Lodge]

Click mode, then check advanced mode.

[rraehal]

Originally posted by The Lodge
Click mode, then check advanced mode.

I was going to suggest the same option.

[Pranavamhari]

HI,

The best shredder is 'Eraser', its free too.
http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/


hari
System Cleaner - Registry Cleaner & Disk Cleaner (http://www.acelogix.com)
www.acelogix.com

[Hola hoop]

Ty all who replied. Gonna try the handy bits shredder and maybe eraser. But The-Lodge, i dont understand your post. what version of Spybot and destroy are you using as my version doesnt have a file shredder.
:t

[richard_cocks]

excuse my ignorance but what are file "shredders", the delete button has always worked for me.

[Hola hoop]

file shredders do what the name suggest, the shread the file.
Think of an office. U shread your paperwork to make it more or less unreadable, but deleting is the equivilant of taking a piece of paper off your desk and putting in the "done" tray. U have the space on the desk but the file is still there
Deleting files doesnt actually delete anything. Is simply "opens up" the memory address for sumthing else to go there, it is not until somthing is then written over that EXACT part of the disk that the data is gone...and in reality is is still not actually gone!
Data recovery engineers would recommend that to remove all data from a hard drive you would need to overwrite the whole hard drive 12 times (this would only mae it extremely difficult to recover data but not impossible - electromagnetic scanner would do it or most of it!)

Shredders passover the data again and again but do not change the residing memory address either, they simply make important sensitive data much harder to recover using standard tools.

[rraehal]

Your version of Spybot does have a file shredder. Simply open S&D, click the mode menu and go to advanced mode. You will get a few new tabs on the lefts. Click the tools button and the file shredder will be there.

[richard_cocks]

Originally posted by Hola hoop

Data recovery engineers would recommend that to remove all data from a hard drive you would need to overwrite the whole hard drive 12 times (this would only mae it extremely difficult to recover data but not impossible - electromagnetic scanner would do it or most of it!)


If you were to write zeros to the disk it would be gone, once, not twelve times would be sufficient, otherwise we'd all use this as a miraculous form of file compression.

And yes, I know deleting doesn't over-write the data it simply edits the FAT (fat rather than memory address, memory address is part of memory), however, defragging the disk afterwards usually will sort that out.

Besides, I really mean not literally what one of these is, but actually what they're used for, they seem to have no home use that I can think of, and very little work use. (maybe if you want to sell off old computer equipment, but even then I'd either not sell the disks or just write zeros and hard format them all before hand).

If these programs are re-writing to your disk 12 times every time you "securly delete" something, (something so secure you were happy for it to lie on your disk whilst you still wanted the file) it sounds like a great way to get your disks to last a bit longer.

[The Lodge]

Spybot 1.3 :t

[The Lodge]

It also shreds internet files.

[Tweb]

BCWipe is free an been using it for several years @ http://www.jetico.com > download, get the OLDER version, 2.37, it works on XP H/Pro. It can wipe file as many time as u like an also a DOS wiper u can use from a bootable floopy.

[rraehal]

Originally posted by richard_cocks
If you were to write zeros to the disk it would be gone, once, not twelve times would be sufficient, otherwise we'd all use this as a miraculous form of file compression.


The US department of Defense requires 7 passes of zero writing a disk for security.

I have used standard recovery programs after one pass and could not recover anything. I think once pass of a zero wipe and then an install of an OS is good enough for home users when a computer is sold.

[ZBREAKER]

Again...Spybot 1.3 contains an excellent shredder.