Data Destroyer Section 1: Introduction It is well-known that when Windows "deletes" a file it does not actually destroy the contents of the file but rather simply unlinks the file from the file directory system, leaving the contents of the file in the disk sectors. This data will remain there until the operating system re-uses those sectors when writing new data. Until the old data is overwritten (and this may take months or longer) it can be recovered by programs that read disk sectors directly, such as forensic software (so called because it is used to obtain evidence in criminal investigations and also in legal discovery).
James M. Rosenbaum argued, in "In Defense of the Delete Key", "that information which its author has attempted to delete should not be (as it is now) admissible as evidence against that person if that information is subsequently recovered." This argument has not been universally accepted.
In order to be sure that a deleted file really is deleted, gone for good, its contents never to be seen again, it is necessary to overwrite the data sectors of that file. This is what Data Destroyer does. It purges data in files, where "purge" means to destroy, to eliminate completely by overwriting, so that the data cannot be recovered by any means. Data Destroyer allows you to destroy the contents of a file by overwriting it several times (or many times) with random bytes, and with bytes with alternating bit patterns, before the file is deleted (i.e., unlinked).
Why might you want to do this? For example, if you upgrade your PC, or your PC's hard disk, what about all the files on it (including your personal financial records)? Donate it to charity and who knows who will end up reading about your offshore bank accounts (assuming you are fortunate enough to have any). "Sanitizing" (as those Pentagon generals say) your hard disk before throwing it out or giving it away is thus recommended.
As another example, suppose during your lunch hour at work you're surfing the web and you (accidentally, of course) stumble upon some porno site. By the time you realize what has happened, and click the Back button, your browser has already saved maybe several GIFs of naked women (or worse, naked men, boys or prepubescent girls) to your hard disk. Oops! Maybe no-one will ever find them. But to be sure you could run Data Destroyer on all the images in your browser's cache folder, before deleting them. That way you can be sure no-one will accuse you of pedophilia, bestiality or some other disreputable predilection.
Of course, there are lots of other cases where you might want to ensure that no-one will ever be able to read your deleted files.
Data Destroyer will purge:
- A single file.
- All files (or a specified subset of files) in a folder (and optionally in all subfolders of that folder).
- All files in a specified set of subfolders of some folder.
- All free space on a disk.
- The entire disk, except for a specified set of top-level folders.
This software checks for possible errors in user input, and is designed to minimize the chance of accidentally purging a file that you wish to keep. It is even possible, in a multiple-file purge operation, to confirm the operation on each file before it is purged.
Another feature of Data Destroyer is that you can get an estimate of the time required to perform a purge operation. A large purge operation may require many hours, and if you did not have an estimate of the time needed before beginning the operation you might get worried, not knowing how long it still has to run.
Data Destroyer erases data from any writable magnetic storage medium, which includes hard drives, floppy disks, ZIP drive disks and memory sticks. It is not suitable for erasing data on CD-ROMs (unless writable).
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