Conveniently, File Shredder provides that function, too. If for some reason you think you’ve messed up, you can always shred your free space as a thorough measure, just to make sure nothing gets by. It just modifies the pointer that tells the operating system where it’s located. When moving files around on the same hard drive this does not apply, because it does not move the actual file. The same principle applies when moving files between different hard drives, over the network, or any other move that causes Windows to automatically delete the original file. That way I’m not leaving one behind where it could be recovered. Then I’d need to manually shred the original file on my computer’s hard drive. One on the thumb drive and one on the hard drive. So what I would need to do here is copy the file to my thumb drive first so that there are two copies. The original file never got shredded and is still hiding in my free space. If I did, the computer would automatically delete the original file from my computer in the normal way. If you’re moving a sensitive file off of a location to a new location (like from a computer to a thumb drive), you’ll need to take some special steps to make sure it doesn’t leave anything behind.įor example, I have a sensitive file I want to remove from my computer and put on a thumb drive. Moving files around can leave unseen copies behind. Click the X to go back to the main window. When it reaches 100%, it will say “Wipe finished.” You may have to scroll down the window to see it. You can also select the erasure method here as well. Select the box for the correct drive (there’s probably only one) and click Next. In the main window click Shred Free Disk Space. If you’d like to learn more about why this is necessary, check out my tutorial on shredding your free space with CCleaner. Note: The method you choose will be the same one used when you use the right click method as described above. Feel free to choose from any one of the others, however. I do not suggest choosing the one- or two-pass methods. Choose a different method from the drop down menu.Click on Shredder Settings in the main window.There’s really is no need to change this as the DoD method is plenty secure. The default is the DoD method which does three overwrite passes. File Shredder Settings and Features Change the shredding algorithm Then hold your breath and click the button that says Shred Files Now when you’re ready. You can either drag them in from another window or click Add File(s) or Add Folder to find them. Then add all the files you want to shred. If it didn’t put an icon on your desktop then you should be able to find it in the Start menu. It might be easier to do it in the File Shredder program window, especially if they’re in different folders.įirst, open the file shredder program. Maybe you have lots of files you want to shred. Use the program window to delete several files at once You can also delete more than one file at a time by selecting several at once then following the same process. But as long as the file disappeared, then File Shredder did its work. Small files like regular documents will be so quick you probably won’t even realize it did anything special. How long it takes to erase depends on how big the file is. Right click on the file you want to delete.Run the installer after it’s downloaded if it didn’t start automatically. Go to and click the download button at the bottom. The latter is actually an encryption program but it offers a shredding function as well. Some others I would recommend are Eraser or AxCrypt. There are many free programs that do what we’re about to do, but for this tutorial we’ll be using one called File Shredder because it’s more customizable than most. For more on this check out my article How Does Digital File Shredding Work? How To Use File Shredder Important Note: File shredding does not work on SSDs and will only wear the drive out faster.
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