Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
What I don't understand is why you think it might not be.
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Hi Dennis. Because of the word. If it's shredding the file it means it's chopped up in little pieces.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
There are a variety of secure delete programs available, and all work in the same basic manner.
When you delete files from a drive using the OS, what you are removing is the pointers to the files and the space they occupy. That space is marked as free, and can be reused by the OS the next time it needs it. The potential issue is that the underlying data those files contain is still on the drive in that freed space, and can potentially be recovered. Secure delete programs not only delete the pointers to the files - they overwrite the data on the the areas those files occupied with random garbage, to make it impossible to recover.
Whether you use the standard OS file delete routines or a secure delete, you get the freed space back. You go with a secure delete solution because you think the data in the deleted files is sensitive enough that you want no chance for it to be recovered. (Extreme caution is needed, because you won't be able to recover it either if you delete the wrong thing.)
I have a couple of programs like that and have yet to use them. Very little data here is that sensitive, and stuff like that isn't kept on my HD. It's on a USB thumbdrive that is removed when the data isn't required, and stored elsewhere. If I replaced the HD in my machine, I might reformat it before tossing it, but wouldn't bother to securely wipe it - there's nothing on it that would give me heartburn if an unknown third party did recover it.
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Dennis
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Thanks for the explanation. I don't have anything that important. I just watched "Citizen Four" and it aggravates me that the NSA and all these Google-type companies can pretty much do whatever they want with my data.
Makes me want to try Mega.