File wipe methods:
Quick Wipe:
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This method is the fastest and the least secure. It simply overwrites all the file data once, replacing each byte with a $0 character (hexadecimal zero). This is roughly the same as overwriting the file with another file after deleting it. It will make it impossible to recover the file with undelete programs but a data recovery lab will probably be able to restore the deleted data.
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Standard:
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The default option. t overwrites every byte of the files to be wiped twice, once with $0 and once with $FF (hexadecimal 255). It is quite a lot more secure than Standard Wipe and only takes a little longer. However, a determined data recovery lab with modern equipment may be able to restore the data. |
Safe: |
This method overwrites every byte of the data to be wiped three times, once with $0, once with $FF and once with random values. This method is probably the best trade-off between speed and security. It is a lot faster than Military Standard Wipe and you can be 99.9% sure that even a well-equipped data recovery lab will not be able to restore the wiped files. |
Military standard: |
This is the option to use for deleting extremely sensitive data or when you have strict security regulations requiring unrecoverable deletion. When this is selected File Wiper overwrites every byte in the files to be deleted seven times: three times with $0, three times with $FF and then once with random bytes. There is no known way to restore data wiped with this method, even using the most advanced data recovery tools. |
Program options:
Rename files and folders before wiping:
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Because of the way Windows® works it is not possible to delete the names of files and folders directly. Even if their contents have been wiped completely, the names are always still accessible to anyone with the necessary tools. This can be a problem if you have files and folders with sensitive names that you don't want anyone to see.
When this option is selected File Wiper overwrites the names of all wiped files and folders with random bytes, making it impossible to recover the original names. Recommended, selected by default. Note: You cannot rename folders that still contain files. Selected folders will only be renamed if all the files they contain have been wiped. |
Also wipe folders: |
Folders are really nothing more than directory entries, just like file names. And like file names, the names of folders cannot really be deleted. When this option is selected any folders selected for wiping will be deleted after the files they contain have been wiped and their names will be overwritten with random bytes. Note: You cannot delete folders that still contain files, of course. You can only delete folders if you also delete all the files they contain. |
Test mode:
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This option is provided for testing purposes only. It is deselected by default and should not be used for normal wipe operations.
When this option is selected the selected files are wiped -- i.e. their data is overwritten using the wipe method selected (see above) -- but their directory entries are not deleted. This means that if you open Windows® Explorer after wiping them you will still see the files listed. However, if you view their contents you will find that they have been completely replaced by the data bytes written by File Wiper. If you selected the Rename option (see above) before wiping the files and folders they will be listed with their new random names instead of their original names. This allows you to check that wiping is performed properly before you use the program for deleting really critical data. |