Delete With Wiping command for files and folders


To delete a file or folder with BCWipe, simply use the Delete with wiping command from Explorer's pop-up menu. Right-click on the item you want to delete in Explorer: this will bring up the menu that includes Delete with wiping command. The following picture illustrates how to run the command:

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When you run the Delete with wiping command, the following window appears:

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To terminate the wiping process press Cancel button.

If you wipe group of files, you can wipe them one-by-one by pressing Yes button to confirm wipe of a concrete file. It is possible to skip wipe of some file by pressing Skip button. If you are sure that all the selected files should be wiped, press Yes to All button.

It is possible to look at the contents of the file before wiping by pressing View button. After taking a look at the file you can make a final decision - whether you really wish to wipe it and press Yes button, or you prefer do not delete it and press the Skip button.

You can set options for wiping files or directories if you press Options button:



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The following options can be set or changed:

Scheme - BCWipe allows user to wipe data with predefined wiping schemes (one random pass, DoD 5200.28-STD, Peter Gutmann) , as well the software includes Wiping Scheme Editor utility to view and edit number of wiping passes and binary patterns used in every pass. You can customize all the details concerning the wiping process if you press Edit/View scheme button. Read more detail about creating your own wiping scheme in the Wiping Scheme Editor chapter.

Wipe unused space in Swap file - Swap file is the Windows system file that is used for the virtual memory support, and it can store parts of documents, you were working with, in an opened form on hard drive. If you set the option, BCWipe will erase unused space in the swap file. Hence, if some sensitive data is still stored on the unused space, it will be wiped. More cardinal way to solve the problem of security leak through the swap file is to activate Swap File Encrypting utility by pressing Encrypt Swap File button (see also Swap File Encrypting chapter).

NOTES:
  1. If you turn on Swap File Encrypting, you do not need to wipe the file at all.
  2. If you do not encrypt Swap File, it is recommended to create Wipe Special Folders task to wipe the Swap File regularly.
  3. If you do not encrypt Swap File and do not run Wipe Special Folders task to wipe the Swap File, it is recommended to wipe unused portions of Swap file regularly.

Wipe empty directory entries - Directory entry is a reserved space on a FAT disk, where the file system stores name and attributes of the file. During ordinary Windows delete operations, Windows just marks a corresponding directory entry as unused, but does not erase the whole directory entry. Any file that has been ‘deleted’ by Windows, can get its name restored by special utilities. You can set the option to erase all data from directory entries. Note that the option works for FAT and FAT32 disks only. Since NTFS filesystem has different structure, BCWipe erases MFT Records (analog of Directory Entries in FAT), when you run Wipe Free Space command for NTFS disk.


View this file before deletion - the option allows verifying result of wiping the file you are going to delete. If you set the option, BCWipe will run Hexadecimal File Viewer program to show you bytes, written to the sectors on disk where the file was stored. Normally you will notice random data instead of the document data, originally stored in these sectors.

Process Options property page - Wiping process can be configured to perform additional actions, like writing main steps to a log file, shutting down computer or logging off after finishing the wiping process. Read also Process Options chapter for more information concerning options, available for wiping process.

See also:

Delete with wiping task type
Swap File Encrypting
Hexadecimal File Viewer
Wiping Scheme Editor
Process Options