Monday, February 2, 2009

Secure Delete

If you want to erase information on Windows I have a tool to recommend
It is Secure Delete from Sysinternals
Sysinternals Tool Suite is now part of Microsoft
Secure Delete is a free data erase program coded by Windows Guru Mark Russinovich

The advantages of Secure Delete is
  1. No installation required
  2. Part of a Windows OS troubleshooting suite
  3. It is free
  4. It is very easy to use however there is no fanciful GUI everything is done via command line
  5. It is a Microsoft Product so no compatibility issues
First go http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
I have linked Secure Delete software directly here
Or you can download the entire Suite (Inclusive of other tools) here

Download & extract to a folder like (eg.C:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite)

To add Secure Delete to Command Line do as follows:


Note: You need to ensure every entry is delimited by a ";"
As shown below
;C:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite;

To use Secure Delete to delete files
  1. Select Command Prompt or Type "cmd" in Run
  2. Right Click "Run as Administrator"
Note:
You specify -p X where X is the number of times to overwrite the file so it can't be recovered

To clean the harddrive free space do as follows:


Again you can specify how many time you want to clean your C:\ by adding "-p X" to the command

Using SDelete

SDelete is a command line utility that takes a number of options. In any given use, it allows you to delete one or more files and/or directories, or to cleanse the free space on a logical disk. SDelete accepts wild card characters as part of the directory or file specifier.

Usage: sdelete [-p passes] [-s] [-q]
sdelete [-p passes] [-z|-c] [drive letter]

-cZero free space (good for virtual disk optimization).
-p passesSpecifies number of overwrite passes.
-sRecurse subdirectories.
-qDon't print errors (quiet).
-zCleanse free space.

Enjoy =)

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