Technical data

6.1 Deletion area

6.1.3 Deleting an entire drive

This deletion mode physically deletes an entire

drive. Each sector of the drive is overwritten

once at least or even several times with a certain

deletion pattern, both according to the deletion

method selected (see 6.5 Deletion methods).

After the successful completion of the deletion

process, all data and files previously stored on

the drive are ultimately deleted, as well their names as their contents.

Note: The physical deletion of entire drives overwrites all sectors on the drive. This destroys

actually all data on the drive, including data which are not stored in files (e.g. hidden operat-

ing system data, boot sector viruses, etc.). HDShredder also allows you to securely delete pro-

prietary file systems (e.g. of industrial or medical systems).

Deleting an entire drive is particularly useful for the following areas of application:

• Secure deletion of drives with unknown data, e.g. as a service provider.

• Deletion of data outside the file system (e.g. hidden operating system data, viruses, etc.)

• Secure deletion of proprietary file systems and hard disk formats (e.g. of industrial or medical

systems).

6.1.4 Deleting a single partition

This deletion mode works quite similar to the pre-

viously described mode (6.1.3 Deleting an en-

tire drive). However, in this case, only the con-

tents of a single partition is physically deleted

and not the entire drive. The deletion is done by

overwriting the partition once or several times with a certain deletion pattern, both depending

on the deletion method selected (see 6.5 Deletion methods).

This deletion area is particularly useful for the following areas of application:

• Secure deletion of single partitions containing sensitive data.

• Selective deletion of data partitions, e.g. in case of a further use of the system installation.

• Reduction of the time required for the deletion by limiting the area to be deleted.

• Using different deletion methods for different partitions.

6.1.5 Deleting a sector area

HDShredder also allows you to only delete a particular area of sectors. For this reason the Op-

tions screen (5.9 Selecting the options) offers you the point Sector area. Here, you can spe-

cify the desired sector area exactly. Enter the first sector to be deleted in the input field from

and the last sector to be deleted in the input field to. The preset value in the field to is the last

sector of the selected medium or partition.

fig. 19: Deleting an entire drive

fig. 20: Deleting a single partition