Permanently deleting files

Stormshield Data Shredder makes it possible to guarantee the permanent, irreversible erasure of data that users wish to delete. The purpose of this procedure is to prevent third parties from recovering data that users thought had been deleted, without the users' knowledge.

The conventional data erasure procedure in Microsoft Windows does not completely erase data. There are tools that can analyze file fragments on the hard disk and reconstruct deleted files.

Stormshield Data Shredder writes a series of characters in bytes (00;FF;55 by default) in several rounds, replacing the file contents. The initial file is completely modified and even a full analysis of the hard disk, sector by sector, does not allow the data to be recovered.

 Depending on the settings configured by the administrator in the policy, Stormshield Data Shredder can be launched:

  • By right-clicking on the file or folder to be deleted to display the pop-up menu,
  • By dragging and dropping from the Windows desktop.

For more information on how to configure Stormshield Data Shredder in SDMC, refer to the SDS Enterprise Administration guide.

  1. In Windows Explorer, select the file or folder you want to shred, then right-click to select Stormshield Data Security> Shred in the pop-up menu.

  2. Select several files or folders to be shredded at the same time, then start the shredding process. When a folder is erased by Stormshield Data Shredder, all files and folders in it are securely erased.

    To stop confirmation requests, unselect the checkbox Request confirmation for each file.

    IMPORTANT
    If you stop the shredding process by clicking on Stop, the file will not be deleted, but the files already erased cannot be retrieved.

  3. As the processing continues, a report showing the result for each file is displayed:

    To close the report when the processing ends, check the Close the window automatically box. The window will be closed only if the processing is successful.

Stormshield Data Shredder supports dragging and dropping on the Windows desktop or when using Windows Explorer.

  • Select one or several files from Windows Explorer. Hold down the left mouse button, drag and drop the file icons to the Stormshield Data Shredder icon on the desktop, and release the button:

You may also select one or more folders for shredding, using the same method.

Stormshield Data Shredder will then destroy the data selected permanently and irreversibly. The processing is strictly the same as right-clickng in Windows Explorer.