How do I ensure the files that I have deleted cannot be recovered?
Most of them still believe that once the files get deleted using a ‘Delete’ button, Shift + Del button, emptying the recycle bin or formatting the hard drive, their deleted files are completely removed from PC. It’s not true. Though the files are deleted they can be easily recovered using an undelete software. Maintaining the privacy on storage devices is not as simple as we think.
Whether the file is deleted, Windows operating system does not delete that file permanently. Instead the allocation area or the index of the file system (FAT or NTFS) marks the area used by the deleted file as empty. But the actual raw contents of the file always exist even if the file has been deleted and waits for overwriting by the operating system. Deleted file, which is not overwritten, can be easily recovered.
In order to ensure that your deleted files are erased forever, a file shredder should be used which permanently erases the files from the storage devices. One such utility is Remo Shredder which helps you to shred files and folders from Windows drive, it shreds the deleted data leaving no traces of sensitive/critical data.
Remo Shredder presents a hierarchical explorer view to select file and folders to shred. Simply add the files to “shredding zone” and select the shredding patterns and the software would start data destruction beyond recovery.
Shredding patterns offered by Remo Shredder exceeds the standards of DOD US and offers 9 Shredding standards.
Erasing the files beyond recovery
Remo Shredder offers safe erasing of data beyond recovery by overwriting the data several times based on the shredding method selected.
Follow the steps mentioned below to use Remo Shredder to securely erase your data.
Step – 1
Remo Shredder has an intuitive interface that helps even a non technical person to use the software to erase their sensitive data. As soon as the application is launched, it starts loading the drives in the left tree pane. The main window of Remo Shredder is as shown in Figure a.
Figure a: Application Main Window
Step – 2
Once the logical drives are loaded, select a drive that has file(s)/folder(s) having sensitive data to be shredded beyond recovery. All the contents of the drive would be listed in the right pane of application main window. Select those file(s)/folder(s) that need to be shredded and click to add them into ’shredding zone’ or drag and drop them to shredding zone. The application adds the selected file(s) and folder(s) into shredding zone as shown in Figure b.
Figure b: Selected data in Shredding zone
Step – 3
Once you select the data you wish to permanently erase, click 
Shred file(s) and folder(s) button listed in the tool bar, to shred the file(s) / folder(s) listed in shredding zone.
Step – 4
As you click on Shred file(s) and folder(s) button, all the selected file(s) and folder(s) in the shredding zone will be overwritten by different pattern depending on shredding method selected and once the process is completed a message would pop up intimating this.
The data once erased using Remo File Shredder cannot be recovered back using any data recovery software.
Shredding Methods
To select shredding methods, select 
Shredding Options either from the toolbar or from the Tools menu and select Shredding methods option. This would drop down the shredding methods that can be used to shred the data beyond recovery as shown in Figure c
Figure c: Shredding Methods
Remo Shredder utility provides nine shredding methods and they are classified into different levels for erasing the data which are based on the security patterns
Low Security Shredding methods/ patterns
- Fast Zero Overwrite
- Random Overwrite
- US Department of Defense (DoD 5220.22-M)
- US Navy, NAVSO P-5239-26 – RLL
Medium Security Shredding methods/ patterns
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO standard
- German:VSITR
- DOD Standard 5220.28 STD
High Security Shredding methods/ patterns
- Peter Guttmann Secure Deletion
- US Department of Defense (DoD 5220.22-M) + Guttmann Method
Remo Shredder overwrites the data with selected method several times. If low security pattern is used to erase the data then there are chances that the recovery could be done by hardware specialists who can read off the disk and get the data back with a pattern of bits. High security shredding methods are bit complicated. They overwrite the data with selected patterns several times that makes the data impossible to recover.
In order to ensure that the files deleted using Remo File Shredder is not recoverable run the demo version of REMO Undelete software.
