Skip to main content

Overwriting Deleted Files in Windows

 Once a file is deleted, most operating systems will still hold on to the file. The link between the operating system and the file is removed, but the data is still on the disk waiting to be overwritten or used for something else. A common utility seen in the wild is Eraser but it's a bloated utility that takes a long time. It's a good utility if you really need to overwrite a Windows machine more than 3 times - but the use case for this is minimal. 

pause: this article surrounds mostly HDD, as files are recoverable on these drives if not overwritten. For SSDs, this is just going to cause more wear to your drive!

An underutilized tool is cipher. In Windows, it displays or alters the encryption of directories and files on NTFS volumes. But, with the option w it overwrites deleted files and empty space of a drive. You can use it on the same drive the OS is located, external drives, and removable media. It's easy to use! If your OS is installed on C: and you want to remove all your deleted files and empty space try cipher /w:C or replace C with the drive letter.


The process doesn't take long, but it is a good idea to not only close applications it recommends, but to close background processes as well. My favorite shortcut for the Task Manager is Ctrl + Shift + Esc, make sure to close as many background processes as possible while this is running.  

The best use case for this is when getting rid of HDDs before reusing them elsewhere for other purposes. In lab setups, this can be quite useful. 

Do you overwrite space on your HDDs? Why or why not?

Fun fact! Did you know modern OSs already scatter data around when writing to a SSD to more evenly wear it and reduce malicious recovery? Cool!


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My 2021 New Year's Resolutions

  In 2019, I made my New Year's Resolution to not drink in 2020. I had no idea what 2020 had in store, and I made it until RBG died, September 18th 2020, before I drank again. Even after, I hadn't had more than a few drinks at a time since. I still plan on not drinking or getting drunk, but it inspired me to make a ton of New Year's Resolutions for 2021. Resolutions I'm not sure if I'll make any of these come true, but if I could have some success on the last resolution, maybe I can be successful with a few more. I'm not comfortable sharing every goal, but there are a few that I think maybe fun to reflect on later! Two traditional goals, and two wardriving goals!  1) Meatless Mondays 2) No Candy Wednesdays 3) Submit to Wigle every month 4) ....and the Grand Finale: Make an optimized trip half-way across the country in my truck! The first two goals are based on my consumption. I eat way too much candy and I don't have to explain why that's bad -  and I sh
2 comments
Read more

Can you hack a security checkpoint metal detector? Yeah, we already did.

To get straight to the point - walkthrough metal detectors are a security technology to attempt to detect and thus remove weapons and dangerous items from individuals to make a safe space. What if they were much more fallible than expected?  I'm not here to fear-monger either - these problems are preventable with proper use and changed in guidelines. Like many security controls, their exploitation is commonly due to those who implement and monitor them. However, in order to create these changes, more proof-of-concepts and solutions need to be tested. We already have a few to start.  The walkthrough metal detector (WTMD) research was not my original idea. It started out of research projects from  PHSI  and another Garrett 6500i was donated to our lab. This machine was not ours and we did not have permission to modify or conduct digital attacks on the detector. We were supposed to use physical modifications to hide or modify the results of the screening.  One colleague in particular
Post a Comment
Read more