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Comment followup: SDelete is a tiny tool for securely deleting files
When I wrote about Eraser, commenter jxejiehyzoli (great nick, by the way) noted that there's also SDelete, which is a simple command-line tool by Sysinternals.
Since I love everything that Sysinternals does (long live Autoruns!), I decided I'd try the massive 46KB download.
It's a single file that you can place anywhere on your system or on a USB drive. If you place it in your path (for example, C:\Windows\system32), you can easily run it from the console. You just need to type sdelete and follow it with the file that you wish to completely obliterate; the tool handles the rest. You can also remove entire directories and wipe the free space on the disk.
The tool has no graphical components. It doesn't add an entry to the context menu or anything like that. Adding entries to the context menu isn't very difficult, though. If there's any interest in the comments, I might write a follow-up post to show you how to do that.
All in all, it's a tiny, minimalistic tool that does just what it says. This one's a keeper.
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsSteve PortigalAug 11th 2010 3:12PM
I find Eraser not so great. A lot of things seem to complete with errors. Then the name of the files that weren't erased is sitting in the Eraser queue. Umm, hello? So I'd love to learn how to put sdelete into my context menu. Thanks for any help!
CrungeAug 11th 2010 4:55PM
You can add a program (including sdelete) to your Send To menu. I just added sdelete to my send to and can verify that it does a secure delete on files I choose. Here are instructions to add a program to your Send To menu in Vista and Windows 7: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/customize-the-windows-vista-send-to-menu/
(I am not affiliated with the howtogeek.com site)
Steve PortigalAug 13th 2010 8:19PM
Here's a way to create a BAT file that (I think) you can just drop stuff on top of. I haven't tried with my Win 7 setup though.
ZerbeAug 11th 2010 3:28PM
I use DeleteOnClick from 2BrightSparks, same makers of SyncBack. There is a free version and paid for version. The freeware version works great for me, puts a menu item in the context menu. There are no options for it(in free version anyway), but It does follow the U.S. DOD 5220.22-M secure file deletion standard.
http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware
wvzskpgmbtmnAug 12th 2010 9:18AM
Thanks for spreading word about SDelete in its own article. Things you might not know:
- easy integration with Total Commander
- native support in Sandboxie (as a method of deleting your sandbox, cool)
- U.S. DOD 5220.22-M compliant