Shredding

Set options for shredding on this tab.

Options

Clean cluster tips when cleaning free space

When checked, the cluster tips are cleaned in Cleaning Disk Free Space. The cluster tip is a free space between the end of file and the end of disk space allocated for the file (the allocated size is always a multiple of the cluster size). If you do not clean cluster tips, you take the risk that some fragment of sensitive data previously stored in this cluster is available in it. Cleaning cluster tips means that all existing files will be padded out to a multiple of the cluster size. And this padded space will be shredded. Finally the file will be shrunk back to its original size.

Clean FAT directory entries

When checked, the plugin cleans the file names in directories on FAT drives in Cleaning Disk Free Space. Note: cleaning file names in directories on exFAT drives is not supported.

Enable cleaning of the swap file each time Windows shuts down

Almost any piece of memory used by any program can be swapped to the paging file. So any sensitive data (e.g. passwords) can be written to the paging file. If the disk with the paging file is attached to another computer, the paging file is normally accessible. So anyone can read this sensitive data from it. If you check this option, it specifies that inactive pages in the paging file are filled with zeros when the system stops. Warning: enabling this option can degrade the performance of your computer.

Show warning "Shredding problem with small files on NTFS"

When checked and you shred file smaller than 1024 bytes from NTFS drive, the plugin shows the following warning. On NTFS, small files (under around 1024 bytes) are stored directly in the MFT (Master File Table), which makes it problematic to shred them properly without direct disk access since MFT is a system file and all changes to it are logged to a special file, which is not accessible to applications. We recommend that you clean free space on this disk too, to overwrite the remnants of the logging file. To avoid this problem, we also recommend using a FAT32 volume for all sensitive files.