Technical data

6 Operating principles

This paragraph gives you detailed descriptions of the operating principles of the different dele-

tion methods and modes and of the operation of HDShredder in case of defective media.

6.1 Deletion area

HDShredder can handle both, entire drives and individual partitions. It can also delete sec-

tor-exact subareas (6.3 Deleting a sector area). The meaning, effect, and areas of application

of different deletion areas are described in the following subchapters. The different deletion

areas allow you to determine which areas or which data are to be deleted (“What is

deleted?“). Regardless of that, different deletion methods can be applied on the respective

area (“How is deleted?“), see also 6.5 Deletion methods.

6.1.1 Preliminary remark

Defining a deletion area with HDShredder allows you to determine exactly which data are to

be deleted. This might also strongly influence the time required for the deletion. That time res-

ults from the amount of the sectors to be deleted multiplied by the number of runs (according

to the deletion method used, see 6.5 Deletion methods).

Important: In case of doubt, you should always delete the entire medium. Only if you are en-

tirely sure that only a part, e.g. an individual partition, is to be deleted, you should limit the

area of deletion by selecting the corresponding deletion area.

Tip: If you want to limit the area of deletion for reasons of time (e.g. complex deletion meth-

od), but you are not entirely sure whether the remaining areas are free of sensitive data, per-

form a simple deletion (6.5.1.1 Fast – 1 run) of the entire medium at first. Afterwards, de-

lete the limited area with the desired and more complex deletion method.

6.1.2 Physical deletion

In contrast to the normal deletion of files with the delete”command or the trash or by format-

ting the medium, HDShredder does not only delete the file references from the file directory

(or the administration table) but also completely overwrites the contents of files and director-

ies. This also applies for files which have already been deleted in the conventional manner.

However, any medium or its sensitive areas should generally be overwritten once at least. This

prevents the data thereon from being recovered using conventional data recovery software.

Warning: After the physical deletion, the entire deleted data can only be recovered with

great technical expenditure – if possible at all – depending on the deletion method used (see

6.5 Deletion methods). This also applies, of course, for an unintentional deletion. Before

starting the deletion process, please make sure you only delete the desired medium. A re-

covery of the data – also in case of an unintentional deletion – is generally impossible.