Securely deleting a file

When a file is removed from a folder, the operating system removes the name of this file from the directory and restarts its pointers. The contents of the file, however, remains saved in the hard disk sectors. There are some popular tools to recover deleted files. These tools can reinsert the file name in the directory and reset its pointers, so that its original content is retrieved.

This is not very safe when dealing with sensitive files, such as key files. If you're not careful when you delete a key file, it can be retrieved by another person using a recovery tool.

EAESCrypt has a tool for the safe removal of a file. It does this by replacing the contents of the file by a sequence of random values prior to delete it. If the file is later retrieved by a recovery tool, the retrieved data will be this random sequence instead of the original contents of the file.

To safely remove a file, follow these steps:

• In the Windows Explorer, right click over the file to be deleted;
• Choose the option "EAESCrypt" and then "Securely delete this file";
• In the openned console window, type Y and press ENTER

The full contents of the file will be overwritten, and then the file will be removed.