secure shreding not work

[yellowcat]

hello everyone
i had some files i wanted to shred/permanatly delete (as in not recoverable at all)

so i downloaded freeware 'encrypt files' from snapfiles which has a shred capability
i selected the files and watched the splash screen show me it 'using a dom' algoritham three times per file.

thought that was that but as ever being curious get an undelete programme and see if files were truly deleted

again went to snapfiles and downloaded 'undelete plus'
low and behold all the so called shreded files were there screamin out 'hello here we are come get us'

i was able to recover them and they were all readable/fully functional

i did a reboot incase they were from a hidden cache or something sinister but still recoverable even after several shreddings...

what am i doing or what do i need to do to fully shred these files??

cheers

[phishphreek]

I like to use either http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ or sdelete from m$
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897443.aspx

[yellowcat]

used that and still able to recover files

[Und3ertak3r]

Interesting.. tested here myself and on the 5 testfiles all not recoverable?
would be interested to try to recreate your situation.. seems there is only the simple 3 pass DOD method.. I could not see how to change the shred method..

Will try again later..

[yellowcat]

ok will try using a new file
will create it
dom wipe it
and see if it recoverable

here we go

[yellowcat]

well this is even weirder
opened up undelete plus, undeleted all files which should have been wiped to local disk. these files had names like Ds432.xxx
once undeleted i renamed them all 'happy.xxx'
then shreded with guntmann 35
i re ran undelete and all the files we but with their origional names
so how can i erase these 'deleted files'
just dawned on me that this could be the prob......

[phishphreek]

Use the eraser program I linked you to. Delete the free space and cluster tips. After you do that, run the undelete program. You shouldn't even see any files that it can recover.

[nihil]

I have used the Heidi eraser program that phish~ linked you to. Like he says, if you erase the free space you will "see" the files but they will have a zero length and no name.

You might try defragmenting after erasing as well

EDIT:

I am not familiar with the 'encrypt files' program that you are using, and wonder if that might be the problem? It would appear to make an encrypted copy of a file and then delete (shred) the original. This would mean that a copy was being retained by design?