No, I don’t have anything on my computer the FBI could nail me for – but what’s the difference between using the “shred recycle bin” and “empty recycle bin”? Does shredding really remove the files from your hard drive? I suspect a recovery expert could get them back – right?
DON’T use that. Get something like PGP that will wipe all unused disk space. And you can encrypt anything you want to keep around. It would take the FBI millions of years to decrypt my sensitive data. Short of torture, there is no way they could figure out my PGP passphrase.
How does one get the “shred” option? I just have “empty” (Windows XP Home).
There are a couple of ‘shredder’ utility available online. I do remeber finding some of them while looking for an undeleter. This is one I found: http://www.google.com.sg/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=3&url=http%3A//www.handybits.com/shredder.htm&ei=KrsIQ-voK43sYPGHuP8J
Just bought my new system a couple weeks ago, and noticed the “shred” option when I went to empty the recycle bin. I have XP (media center edition) Version 2002, service pack 2. whatever that means.
If you have “shred recycle bin” then you have some software over and above the basic Windows that gives you that option. That said, emptying your recycle bin simply tells Windows to “delete” your files, and all Windows does when told to delete a file is to flag the disk space that is taken up by the file as available for reuse; it does not do anything to the contents of the file. That’s why there are many programs on the market that allow you to “undelete” files. “Shredding” in this context means over-writing the file before deleting it. That makes it basically impossible for ordinary mortals to recover the contents of the file without very high-tech hardware (which can very accurately measure the magnetic patterns on the disk and detect the traces of previously recorded patterns).
I wonder about some people’s paranoia about the FBI/NSA/CIA reading their over-written files. Yes, they almost certainly could if they really wanted to. For the average person, why in ---- would they want to??
What Canadjun said. “Shredding” or “wiping” if properly done has the effect of overwriting the data and making it inaccessible to “ordinary mortals” who’d be accessing your drive over the net or from the regular OS or command line – we’re talking business competitors, jealous spouses, thieves, ordinary hackers, industrial spies, and ratfink low-level tech geeks with a mind for blackmail. The better Wipe utilities also search the registry, the app history and the various caches for file shrapnel, but many do still leave you open to having fragments of the unwanted material lying about, what with Windows’ adorable tendency to scatter bits and pieces of its programs all over the place. BCWipe, for one, warns you that having the System Restore function on prevents it from truly wiping every last file (because SR auto-caches configuration files).
The usual shredder/wiper/washer is not for combatting actual data forensics labs, and it doesn’t have to. All it needs to do is make it unworthwhile for a small-time tech-shop geek to put in the time and effort of picking apart your HDD on the remote chance of recovering thrice-erased copies of your credit card number or your latest swinger party video, when he’s got a hundred other guys who have left such data lying right out in the open for much easier pickin’ . So as far as it does THAT, and you understand that’s what it does, sure, go ahead. As rfdgxm said, you’re better off with strong encryption with a wipe function, if you really handle a lot of sensitive info.