How To Permanently Delete Your Confidential Data

Today, data has become the most valuable asset of an organization. There are various technologies which are being deployed to collect the data from the multiple sources so that it can be analyzed and resourceful insights can be derived from it.

We leverage various encryption methodologies and security mechanisms to keep the data secure and inaccessible from the unauthorized users. The time for which these storage systems and hard drives are used, they are kept completely secure. But, what happens when these storage systems or the storage drives become old or obsolete?

Should you throw them away or simply dispose of them after deleting the data?

Well, this is one of the most significant aspects of data security which is often overlooked by many organizations and individuals while disposing of their old IT assets. The data which was once stored on these systems was very valuable, and this data can even be accessed by the unauthorized personnel even when you have deleted the data from the system using data deletion functions provided by the computer and your operating systems.

Did You Know…

1) Two MIT students purchased 158 used disk drives from various locations and found more than 5,000 credit card numbers, medical reports, detailed personal and corporate financial information, and several gigabytes worth of personal e-mail and private videos/images on those drives.

2) Around 38% computers sold on the second-hand gadgets market have still data on them.

Let’s look into How People Commonly Delete Data From Their Computer Systems?

Delete Key

Most of us use the simple delete key to remove the data from the computer, and as soon as this is done, the data is moved to the recycle bin, from where one can restore the deleted data if required. After a few days, the data gets deleted from the Recycle Bin as well and then, the computer is not able to recover the data.

Shift + Delete

The “Shift+Delete” is another way to delete data, and this is considered as one of the permanent data deletion ways as it does not transfer the deleted data into the recycle bin, and that’s why the deleted data cannot be recovered.

But, none of these ways can permanently delete data.

Yes, though, it appears that the data has been deleted by these methods, but, in actuality, the data is still there on the hard disk drive or storage drive. The data is only deleted, but, not wiped.

What actually happens is when we store the data on the hard disk drive, it acquires the sectors on it and the sectors acquired by data are noted down in the hard disk drive’s address book. So, whenever you want to access a particular file, the address book lets the computer know where the data has been stored and then it is retrieved from there.

Now when you apply delete or “shift delete” operation, only the pointers to the data from the address book get deleted, and as a result, the computer is not able to retrieve the data. The address book no longer tells where the data is stored and marks those sectors available for new storage. But, unless some new data is stored in those sectors, the previous data stays intact on them.

Can The Confidential Information Be Accessed From The Computer Even Afer the Data Is Deleted?

Yes, it can be accessed. There are many data recovery programs which can easily access the deleted data from the hard drive and that’s why it’s important to erase the data permanently.

How to permanently delete files on Windows?

Our system usually carries lots of personal information like credit card information, bank details, chat histories, emails password, passport details etc. Can you imagine if they are compromised with unauthorized persons, your identity may be at risk and you become a victim of data breach?

No worries, BitRaser for File is a trusted solution for permanent deletion of files from Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista for home users. Select the powerful wiping algorithm { dod wipe or NATO } and erases all the files and folder for forever using this file eraser utility.

Below are the software working steps

To install BitRaser for File, follow these steps

• Double-click BitRaserforFile.exe executable file to start the installation. ‘Setup – BitRaser for File’
  a dialog box is displayed.
• From the main screen of BitRaser for File application. Click on Erase now tab from the left pane of the screen. All the connected drives are displayed. Select the file or folder to erase.
• If you want to wipe internet activities. Select internet activities tab from the left pane, the software will highlight all existing browsers.
• Next, an option to erase application traces are also available in the left of the panel. Select application traces tab. The software will list all the application installed on your machine. Check or uncheck the desired applications to select or deselect them for erasing their traces
• For users who wish to erase system traces, select system trace from the left pane of software. A list of all the probable system traces is displayed in the right pane. Select from the list and proceed to erase.

Further, to permanently delete data from multiple hard drives, especially in business or corporate where large hard drives are used, for them we have a secure data erasure software i.e “BitRaser”  which is capable of erasing 32 hard drives simultaneously. This advanced software safely wipes off the hard drives completely leaving no traces of data on the hard drive and beyond the scope of recovery.

Follow the below steps for a complete data erasure:

1. Install the software on your computer and run it.
2. Now choose the hard drives or partitions which you want to wipe off permanently.
3. After selection, the software starts overwriting the selected hard drives or partitions with a series of 0s and 1s. It is a series of binary digits. As the software overwrites the data on hard drives multiple times, the original data stored on them becomes completely inaccessible.

Note: Even if the recovery software tries to access the permanently deleted data, they would only be able to retrieve the 1s and 0s, and nothing else.

To conclude, if you want to dispose of your outdated or unusable IT assets, you must first delete the data and then wipe it off with the help of a secure and reliable data erasure software. This will ensure that your confidential data is never accessed by any unauthorized person. These software systems are fast, reliable, and even generate a certificate, if required by the authorities. Moreover, these can erase multiple drives simultaneously and with an outstanding speed! Individual, as well as Business, can Trust BitRaser for all Data Erasure needs!

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About The Author

Jyoti Prakash

Problem solver and Data recovery specialist. Usually share informative articles on data recovery, database corruption and ways to recover lost data.