Utility that Will Erase DATA Completely from Hard Drive

Remember: Just by Emptying the Recycle Bin will not erase/delete the Data from your Hard Drive! The Data still resides in your Hard Drive and can be accessed/retrieved later by various available Data Recovery Programs!

When you delete files or folders, the data is not initially removed from the hard disk. Instead, the space on the disk that was occupied by the deleted data is “deallocated.” After it is deallocated, the space is available for use when new data is written to the disk. Until the space is overwritten, it is possible to recover the deleted data by using a low-level disk editor or data-recovery software.

The immediate above quote is taken from Microsoft’s Original Support Website. Now the Question arises How to completely wipe out data from your Hard Drive? Here’s the Simple Solution:

Just Grab a simple and small utility SDelete from Microsoft’s Technet Website. This utility uses various command line options for erasing Residual Data from your Hard Drive.

Following is the Command Line Parameter for using SDelete:

Usage: sdelete [-p passes] [-s] [-q] <file or directory>
sdelete [-p passes] [-z|-c] [drive letter]

Above

• -c : Zero free space (good for virtual disk optimization).
• -p passes : Specifies number of overwrite passes
• -s : Recurse subdirectories
• -q : Don’t print errors (quiet)
• -z : Cleanse free space

Make sure you read the whole documentation before running this Utility. No matter whether you are selling your Desktop/Laptop to anyone, this utility will just Erase all your previous data efficiently!

Related: 3 Best Tools for Monitoring your Hard Drive Health, Troubleshooting Pen Drive Problems & Troubleshooting Windows XP Common Problems

Category: Hardware, Security, Software, Windows