BPS Data Shredder

I recently had the opportunity to try out BPS Data Shredder and was really impressed with its capabilities. This software goes beyond simply deleting files and instead completely destroys them along with the free space and Recycle Bin contents. This means that any data that has been overwritten and destroyed cannot be recovered, providing users with a greater level of security and peace of mind.

Of course, this power comes with responsibility, since the user needs to be sure about which files, folders, etc. should be shredded. Fortunately, the program includes many safeguards to warn users and ensure that they understand what they are doing.

One of the interesting things I learned is that Windows allocates clusters for new files from one end of the disk and moves towards the other end. This means that, for example, if you delete files near the end of the disk, it might be a long time before those clusters get used again. Shredding a disk's free space can be very useful in this situation, since it ensures that any deleted data stored in unallocated clusters will be completely shredded, and all the remaining bits and pieces of data from deleted files will be destroyed.

In Windows, files are typically stored using two steps: a directory entry and one or more clusters on the disk. When a file is deleted using Windows, its data doesn't actually get deleted from the disk. Instead, Windows marks the file's clusters as available for reuse and marks the file's directory entry as deleted by replacing the first character of the file's name with a special character. If those clusters don't get reused for another file, they can be retrieved by those who know where and how to look for them. Even adding just one byte to the directory that was deleted can allow the retrieval of the entire file that has been deleted. This is something that most "Unerase" utilities take advantage of.

BPS Data Shredder makes it virtually impossible to retrieve data from a file because it literally overwrites the file's data clusters before deleting the file. This is where the "Quick" and "Thorough" shredding options come in. A "Quick" shred overwrites the file once, filling its data clusters with zeroes. A "Thorough" shred overwrites the file maximum 10 times, using varying bit patterns each time. I really appreciated this level of control over the shredding process, since it allowed me to customize the level of security depending on my needs.

Overall, I was very impressed with BPS Data Shredder's capabilities and found it to be a powerful and easy-to-use tool for securely deleting files. If you're looking for a way to protect your data and maintain your privacy, I would definitely recommend giving this software a try.