Shredding - number of passes - Revisited

ricmarte · Post by **ricmarte** » 2005 Feb 15, 10:01

I read over this thread http://forum.zabkat.com/viewtopic.php?t=48 ... ight=shred regarding the shred feature in X2.

I was wondering if modifying the number of passes could be added in the future. Rolling Eyes Perhaps a registry setting?. Apparently, you can be a "little pregnant" when it comes to data recovery. Smile

I used to use McAfee AV w/a shredder which integrated with my RecycleBin. But I recently switched from McAfee to ZoneAlarm with Antivirus. I got about 40Mb of RAM back and faster read/access times on X2. However, I lost my quick and trusty shredder.

If this is not possible, perhaps someone can recommend a FREE utility that might do the same. I believe PGP8 does this but I am looking for something smaller that won't cost me any computer resources.

-Ric

p.s. I apologize for the cross posting, I started a new thread in the wrong forum. This message also appears in http://forum.zabkat.com/viewtopic.php?t=2696. I'll see if I can delete it.

Post by **nikos** » 2005 Feb 15, 10:37

shred in x2 may not be up to FBI standards, i can't tell
i just write 0s on top of existing info
i can't even tell if NTFS overwrites the original file sectors or decides to move them around (then the zeros will not be effective!)

if you are security conscious you can try shredding a file, and then using any of the available undelete tools and see what you'll get back. Last time i tried, the file couldn't even be found, but I disclaim any future FBI convictions resulting from x2's shredder

ricmarte · Post by **ricmarte** » 2005 Feb 15, 12:31

if you are security conscious you can try shredding a file, and then using any of the available undelete tools and see what you'll get back. Last time i tried, the file couldn't even be found,

Sounds like a good idea. I am going to try this.

...but I disclaim any future FBI convictions resulting from x2's shredder Smile

haha....understood...actually its less criminal than security conscious. I like to shred, scanned id cards, banking e-mails, etc. that can trouble if some gets a hold of my laptop. In an effort to play safe, I make sure I shred when I am at my desktop as well.

Thanks.

-ric

robwg · Post by **robwg** » 2005 Feb 15, 17:41

If you're still looking for a secure delete tool try http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/. It's free (as in GNU) and the source code is available should you want it. It adds an Erase Recycle Bin to the right click menu and an Erase entry for normal files, and you can pick from several erase methods and specify the number of passes that you want it to use.

Hope that helps.

ricmarte · Post by **ricmarte** » 2005 Feb 15, 18:50

Perfect! It works pretty fast in 7x mode. Thanks!

-ric

ByteRisc · Post by **ByteRisc** » 2005 Mar 11, 20:09

Best thing to do for file security:
Get the free (or pay for it to support the project) copy of PGP. (Pretty Good Privacy.) http://www.pgpi.org/

The newest version comes with a wipe feature that is added to the windows (and xplorer) file-rightclick menu.

It allows you to 'wipe' (synonym for shred) a file upto 32 times! It was shown that a file can be brought back using computer forensics even after being shreded 9 times!

Besides this feature, it allows you to apply one of the best encyption algorythms to files selected! As well as being able to encrypt text in an email, or even the clipboard.

Very usefull tool.