How to perform Data Wiping by Permanent File Deletion Software

When you delete files with sensitive information, you want them to disappear forever without leaving any trace or being within the reach of those tools to recover deleted files. Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure those files were permanently deleted.

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Clicking on the "Delete" icon of a file in most cases has not really been deleted. Your operating system will simply mark the space that file was occupying on your storage drive as "available" again, which means that until something takes its place the file can be recovered.

And that is why tools are born to permanently delete files. What they do is replace your file with random data so that not even the best recovery tool in the world can bring it back. This is similar to scribbling with a black marker over text that you want to make disappear.

works on traditional hard drives. Modern solid storage drives (SSDs) and flash memory in mobile devices don't work the same way, which is because applications don't have the same control over where data is written.

If you are equipped with an SSD, deleted files are more difficult to recover once they have passed the Recycle Bin (or Trash, in Apple's case). Finally, the best option to be really sure that your files have been deleted forever is to encrypt your storage drive.

With that said, here is our guide to permanently deleting files.

Permanently delete files in Windows

If you want to delete a file immediately without going through the Recycle Bin it is quite simple: just hold down the shift key while pressing the delete button or the icon in the file explorer.

However, this file could still be recovered by someone who installs a recovery tool, so on a traditional mechanical hard drive you will need a specialized tool to make sure that sensitive information has completely disappeared.

Eraser is a simple but effective tool that has been available for Windows for many years. Just point it to an entire file or folder and it will overwrite it with random data to make it impossible to recover. The tool also allows it to be programmed to "clean" parts of your hard drive on a regular basis if you wish.

Blank and Secure is a fairly similar tool with a perhaps more user-friendly interface. It is also portable, which means that you can take it wherever you want on a USB memory and run it when you need it.

Once you start the program, you only need to drag the files you want to get rid of and drop them in the Blank and secure window. You can program some settings for after deleting the files, such as turning off the computer (very useful when the cleaning work will be very long).

Data Wipe - File Eraser Software is used to remove the data permanently so that no one can recover this data. This software helps you to ensure security. Data Wipe ensures that file deletion is immutable and beyond recall.

CCleaner is one of our favorites because in addition to permanently deleting files it also has other cleaning tools (although you will have to pay for that option).

The tool is more practical for cleaning entire disks at once and not individual files, which is usually a better option to get rid of both files with sensitive information and garbage accumulated on your storage drive. The tool is especially useful for use in modern SSDs that we talked about a few lines above. In any case, if you have a solid storage disk, your best option might be to encrypt it.

BitLocker is included in the “Pro” versions of Windows 10, or you can use an alternative developed by third parties like VeraCrypt. Some SSD manufacturers offer their own solutions, so do your research.

Permanently delete files on macOS

As in Windows, macOS has its own keyboard shortcut to delete files directly without going through the Trash: by pressing the Option + Cmd + Delete keys.

As you have undoubtedly noticed, Macs have been equipped with SSDs for some years now, which mean that conventional techniques for securely deleting files are no longer effective. What you should do is activate FileVault so that the deleted files are very difficult to recover once they have disappeared from the Trash.

Go to the Security and Privacy section from the System Preferences menu and access the FileVault tab to make sure it is active. The downside of using this is that even you will have a hard time recovering files if you forget your password, but you weren't planning to do that, right?

In macOS there were more options to delete files safely but all were abandoned as of the new version, Sierra .

You will probably find several tools to "safely delete files" on the Mac App Store, but they are not really effective when it comes to files stored on SSDs. In the case of a traditional mechanical hard drive you can use tools like FileShredder or Shredo .