Updated on November 6th, 2020
Do you want to erase deleted files and make them unrecoverable? Here’s the guide you can follow. We all know that files deleted from Recycle Bin can be easily recovered by free data recovery software. It’s equally important to permanently erase data in order to protect privacy.
Why do we need to erase deleted files or wipe free space?
Putting a file into Recycle Bin and then deleting it or emptying Recycle Bin is the most common way users deal with data what they do not need any more. This method seems like a good way to get rid of useless files and free up disk space, as it’s very easy to complete. However, you should keep the thought that files deleted from Recycle Bin are not completely gone and you can recover them with free data recovery software.
It sound good that deleted data can be recovered given correct software. The question is what if you want to sell your computer or hard drive? How can you guarantee your sensitive data won’t be recovered by strangers? For those who are especially concerned about sensitive information, it’s really necessary to make deleted files unrecoverable and wipe free disk space.
How to erase deleted data from hard drive?
When a file gets deleted, hard drive sectors where deleted file was stored on retain the data. The area on hard drive is not written data over but tagged with free, so that operating system knows that area can be reused. Until these sectored are used to store new data again, deleted files can be recovered with file recovery tools.
To completely delete files and prevent them from being recovered from empty space on your hard drive, you need to overwrite deleted files and free disk space. The recently updated PartitionGuru Free is able to help you make that come true. PartitionGuru is able to permanently delete existing files, erase entire partition or hard drive, overwrite deleted data and wipe free disk space.
Steps to overwrite/erase deleted files with PartitionGuru
PartitionGuru allows users to erase free disk space and overwrite lost data so that lost data can never be recovered. This action is not reversible, thus please make sure there are not lost files you want to recover. The feature to erase deleted data won’t do harm to existing files. Here are the detailed steps:
Step 1: Download and install PartitionGuru. Launch the software after it is installed.
Step 2: Select partition whose free space you want to wipe and overwrite. Right click it and select “Erase Free Space”.
Step 3: On the pop-up window, click “Erase” button. The process may take a while to complete depending on the space to be erased.