Need for shredding file

Many users are in a misconception that by just deleting a file you can permanently get rid of it. Most of the information you delete can still be recovered by using an undelete software. Here arises the concept of shredding. If you are looking to permanently delete file(s) beyond recovery, then Remo shredder can do it for you. Remo Shredder offers safe erasing of data beyond recovery by overwriting the data several times based on the shredding method selected.

How to shred files from iPod?

Download and install Remo Shredder to PC, which is healthy system and has the best of hardware components, plug the iPod into the computers USB port and then proceed ahead with the process of shredding the files.

Steps for shredding file(s)

Step 1: Launch the Remo Shredder either by selecting the program from the Start Menu, or by double clicking on the desktop shortcut. Once the REMO Shredder software is launched, it starts loading the drives on the left tree pane, as shown in Figure a.

Figure a: Application main window

Step 2: Select the drive that contains the file(s) to be shredded. After selecting the files to be shredded, double click on them to add them into the ’shredding zone’ or drag and drop them into the shredding zone. The application adds the selected file(s) into shredding zone as shown in Figure b.

Figure b: Selected data in Shredding zone

Step 3: 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. To select the shredding methods, click on the Shredding Options button in the toolbar. This drops down the different shredding methods, and the user has to select any one of these methods, as shown in Figure c.

Figure c: Shredding Methods

Step 4: Once you select the shredding method, click on the Shred file(s) and folder(s) button. 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 the same.

Please Note: REMO shredder does not support shredding files from iPod Touch.

As deleting a file does not erase the actual data of the file. Until that space is overwritten by a new file or data, it can be restored easily using undelete software which are specially designed to recover such deleted data. This means that the data is still available on the disk and is liable to data theft. Therefore, after deleting files, you need to run such a program to ensure that the data of those files are completely erased.

Remo Shredder will completely erase files from your disk, by overwriting the portion on the hard drive that was previously allocated to the files several times without the possibility of recovery by any file recovery software or hardware methods.

Steps to be followed to wipe unused disk space using Remo Shredder

Step – 1

Launch the Remo Shredder Main application either from start menu or from desktop shortcut. As soon as the application is launched, it starts loading the drives in the left tree pane as shown in Figure a.

Figure a: Application Main Window

Please Note: You can press Esc button to cancel loading

Step – 2

To shred free disk space, click on ‘Shred free disk space’ button at the toolbar or launch from Shred -> Shred free disk space in Menu bar. As you click the button, a window to select drives is displayed as shown in figure b.

Figure b: Select logical drive

Step – 3

Select a logical drive on which free disk space has to be shredded and click on OK button to proceed

The software starts overwriting the free disk space with selected patterns as shown in Figure c.

Figure c: Progress Window

Once the Shredding process is completed, a confirmation message pops up as shown below.

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.