Geek Software of the Week: Free File Shredder!
We should all be concerned about security. That pretty much goes without saying. However, every so often, somebody has to say it! So, “be concerned about security!” There, I said it!
This week’s Geek Software of the Week provides you with the option of not just deleting a file, which we all know, doesn’t really delete the file. What? You didn’t know that deleting a file doesn’t delete the file? Well, it’s the truth! All deleting the file actually does is mark it as deleted in the file table of your computer. The file is subject to then be written over by new data, which will eventually render it irretrievable, but, if you want to be absolutely sure that a file is gone forever and cannot be retrieved, then you need this week’s Geek Software of the Week! And, it is, Free File Shredder!
“With File Shredder you can remove files from your hard drive without fear they could be recovered. There are quite a few software tools today for retrieval of deleted files under Windows OS. Those tools, often referred to as ‘file recovery’ software, are taking advantage of shortcoming of Windows ‘delete’ command that we all use regularly to delete files. Actually, the ‘delete’ operation in Windows only removes bits of information from files so they appear deleted in OS. It is easy to retrieve those files using aforementioned specialized file recovery software.
In order to remove, or shred files permanently from your system you have to use a program that is capable of rewriting the files with random series of binary data multiple times. This process is often called shredding. That way, the actual content of the file has been overwritten and the possibilities to recover such a shredded file are mostly theoretical.
File Shredder has been developed as fast, safe and reliable tool to shred company files. The author of this program released it free under GNU licence and you are welcome to download File Shredder and use it without any restrictions. File Shredder is simple but powerful program that surpasses many commercial file shredders out there. The Author believes that such a utility should be available to anyone for free and that permanent and safe removal of confidential documents is a matter of basic right to privacy.
In File Shredder you can choose between 5 different shredding algorithms, each one gradually stronger than the previous one. It also has integrated Disk Wiper which uses shredding algorithm to wipe unused disk space.”