Permanently Deleting Computer Files

You may think that when you delete a file from your computer, that it is actually gone - WRONG! You may think that when you empty the Recycle Bin that those files are gone - WRONG!

Any time you delete a file and empty the Recycle Bin, your simply removing the reference to the file from your hard drive’s file table. The actual data in the file is still on your hard drive. Though your operating system doesnt know about it, it is still there. These files can still be recovered with file recovery software. The only way to truly erase the file from your hard drive is by writing over the sectors in which the file exists. There is no sure way of doing this without some sort of file shredding software. This software can detect which sectors on the hard drive contain data from the file that you want to delete, then write over those sectors, thereby permanently erasing the data.

There are a few software products out there that will do this, but you will find one of the better ones here. It is our top choice in the privacy software category.