Overwrite Files With Random Data and Delete Securely With FileKiller
We have earlier seen some methods to permanently delete hard disk data , in case you want to switch over to a new hard drive and want to abandon the older one. Merely formatting the entire hard disk is not a very secure way to get rid of all the data as there are some programs which can be used to recover data from a completely formatted hard drive.
The good old Shift+Delete command is again not sufficient to securely delete files, in case any one else with a little computer knowledge manages to get hold of the older hard drive, you may be in trouble.
Lately I found another free utility for Windows known as Filekiller which can be used to securely delete files in Windows. The program is portable and hence needs no installation or modification of Windows registry.
Using Filekiller is fairly easy, simply drag and drop all the files which you want to delete in the Filekiller program windows and they will be put in a deletion queue. There are basically three options available -
- You can replace the file with any random data, decided by the program
- You can replace the data with blank characters
- You can replace the file with ASCII values for as many iterations possible.
So the concept of Filekiller is that the program makes sure that the data is overwritten and completely destroyed before deleting. Hence, if anyone else tries to recover the data using any other tool, he will be able to recover the overwritten data and not the original one, you get the idea.
Hence if you are looking for a software which can overwrite and then securely delete files, it’s worth giving Filekiller a try. The program requires no setup and works very fast indeed. Apart from overwriting the data, Filekiller will also overwrite the file name, which is again a very good and secured way to get rid of unwanted files you do not need anymore.
Tip: Recover lost data from USB drives
