If you go online and search for “wipe free disk space” you will get a lot of software in the search results. But do you know why you need to use disk wipers? This article will explain how wiping free hard drive space can protect you from identity theft.
Why do I need to wipe my hard drive?
Disk wiping is a process of securely removing remnants of your previously deleted files. You may be surprised, but when you delete files and even empty the Recycle Bin, your files are not actually deleted. Instead, Windows marks the space they occupy as free and waits for an opportunity to overwrite them with new files. This is good news when you need to recover accidentally deleted files because file recovery software can easily undelete files that haven’t been overwritten.
However, deleted files can also put your privacy at risk. That’s because anyone who has access to file recovery software can restore files that contain your bank details if they get access to your computer. This can result in something as bad as identity theft – definitely not something you’d want to happen. Wiping free hard drive space will make sure your deleted files can’t be recovered.
What is disk wiping?
Disk wiping is a process of overwriting free space on your hard drive with random data. This process makes sure that every single deleted file is actually overwritten and not just marked as deleted. Wiping free disk space is an absolute must if you are:
- selling your computer
- donating your computer
- had access to files that contain other people’s (e.g. your clients’) confidential information
- use your laptop while travelling
In addition to that, it’s good to wipe your disk every once in a while just to feel safe.
What is the best way to wipe free disk space?
There are several ways to wipe free disk space. Basically, what you need to do is overwrite all your deleted files. In theory, this could be done manually – you could start creating files filled with numbers and saving them to the disk, then deleting them. But you would need to create thousands of files to overwrite all of your free space plus you can never be sure if deleted files that contain your bank details get overwritten or not. That’s why the best way to wipe hard drive is to use a disk wiper.
A disk wiper is a program that uses different data deletion algorithms to securely overwrite free space on your hard drive. A good disk wiper will offer you a choice of several algorithms – from simple one pass overwriting with zeros and 1’s to complicated government-approved 35-pass shredding methods that guarantee utmost security.
Tags: disk wiper
