How to delete your files forever

Today I am writing about a topic I keep hearing about: How to delete files forever, so that they can’t be “recovered”. Well, there are a few ways to do this; I will explain in full throughout this piece.

First off, this article is for windows users who want to delete their files. Most people are windows users, and if you are a windows user, there’s a good chance that you’re viewing on internet explorer or Firefox. Ok enough with the statistics; let’s move on to the actual article.

When you delete a file, it goes to the recycle bin. When you delete it from there, what happens? Well, in truth, nothing really. The space it used up now becomes “unallocated”, meaning that it is used but if the computer needs it will overwrite this data if it runs out of disk space. This unallocated space will appear as free space if you go into my computer and check the free space/used space pie chart. Ok, now that we know what actually happens when a file is deleted, let’s move on.

So how do we delete files forever? The first way is simple: smash the hard disk. If you are done with that drive, then do this. But don’t smash the whole computer. If it’s a desktop, then you’ll want to remove the hard disk. To do this, turn off the power and open it up. Now, look for a piece of hardware that looks like this:



Now, disconnect the cables and pull it out. There, done. Do what you can to this, drill holes, smash it, and bury the pieces in the ground in different locations. Put it in a fire for about 2 hours; take out the melted metal and rapid-cool it by putting it in cold water and then hammer this out. Seems like a lot to do, but you wouldn’t (or at least, shouldn’t) put personal data in the regular garbage. A new one of these is less than $100, just a side-note.

The next way to delete your files forever is to use a re-writer, like the one by Microsoft, found here. (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx). This program is command-line based and has the small size of just under 50kb, meaning it’ll take 2 seconds to download on any connection. Another program you can use is called fileshredder, a Google search will turn up a download location for it. Both programs will delete your files forever.

Those are two ways to remove files from your computer. There are a few more, but these two will be good for any windows user. One more thing that I must point out: If you are a criminal reading this, and looking for how to delete incriminating evidence, that is a felony in the USA/Canada/UK, not sure about other countries. Just wouldn’t be fair If I didn’t mention that.

Thanks for reading, have fun deleting those files now!


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