Wipe. A method to securely delete files beyond recovery.
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Wipe is a method to securely delete files beyond recovery (at least by conventional software-based forensic tools). This sort of deletion is also known as Shred, Erase, Secure Delete, Nuke, etc. Note that XYplorer's Wipe doesn't perform paranoid stuff like multiple passes or random patterns, because instead of significantly increasing security it would just stress your hardware.
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The following steps suffice to destroy a file permanently:
Reset file attributes.
Overwrite file with zeros (single pass).
Set file size to zero.
Rename file.
Reset the three file dates to random dates.
Delete file permanently (no Recycle Bin).
You can trigger Wipe in four ways:
First, there is a normal menu command: File | File Special | Wipe, which can be assigned a keyboard shortcut.
Second, there is the Wipe toolbar button.
Third, there is the Nuke toolbar button which has configurable properties in its right-click menu. Tick "Wiping Beyond Recovery" to make the Nuke button a very dangerous tool.
Fourth, there is a Miscellaneous command Nuke (#1054) which can be assigned a keyboard shortcut and acts the same as if the Nuke toolbar button is pressed. (Pro Edition Only)
Notes:
You will always get a confirmation prompt before a Wipe operation starts.
Wipe supports overlong filenames (more than 260 chars).
Wipe supports files larger than 2GB.
Wiping huge files takes a while (the "Overwrite file with zeros" part, of course). You will see a little progress indicator in the status bar, and a chance to ESC the operation.
You can also wipe whole folders. All files found within are individually wiped. Then the folders are removed.
Note that wiping (specifically overwriting a file with zeros) should only be performed on HDs (hard disks), but not on SSDs (solid state drives, e.g. flash drives) where the success of overwriting the bytes with zeros cannot be assured due to the logic of those devices, and where it in fact would only increase wear.
Take care: There is no undo for wipe. :)