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The most effective way to ensure complete data destruction is to pulverize the assembly, in much the same way as a wood chipper disposes of tree limbs and brush.
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If it’s crucial that data is obliterated, the only way to be sure it can’t be accessed is to physically destroy the device. The programs overwrite the content in a file multiple times with zeroes, ones and random bits to ensure that the data is unrecoverable other than through extraordinary efforts.
COMPUTER FILE SHREDDER SOFTWARE SOFTWARE
Deleted files can be recovered through readily available freeware programs such as Recuva and Puran File Recovery as well as professional software such as EnCase that data recovery and law enforcement officials use.įile shredders are similar to hard drive overwriters except that they work with individual files, rather than effectively obliterating the entire drive.
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It may be possible to recover the original data unless overwriting has taken place hundreds of times. The storage space for the file is considered available and that may cause the data to be overwritten, although it is not possible to know that it has been. What’s actually deleted is the operating system’s pointer to the file, so it’s invisible to the user but still exists in storage. In most operating systems, when a user deletes a file, it still exists on the hard drive but is made inaccessible through normal means. A file shredder, also known as a virtual or digital shredder, is a program designed to render computer-based files unreadable, just as a conventional shredder makes physical documents unreadable.
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