Shredding files means permanently erasing all the files from the hard drives. Whenever a file is deleted using Command prompt or with Shift+Del key combination, it cannot be restored back from Recycle Bin, as it bypasses the Recycle Bin. If you think by empting the Recycle Bin, you can get rid of data permanently then it is not correct. Formatting or reformatting the disk also does not destroy the data. In these scenarios, the pointer referring to the files are deleted not the actual data. So all deleted files, with no data loss can be recovered using variety of data recovery software available in market. If you want to sell your external hard drive like USB drive or want to dispose it, and before doing so you want to destroy all your data from it, then you must perform shredding. You can shred files from external USB drive using good shredding third party software, like Remo File Eraser, which will simply overwrite the external USB drive data with the random values, which makes the original data irrecoverable.
Whenever a particular file is deleted beyond the manual recovery (without third party utility software) or when file is lost due to formatting or reformatting the external USB drive, it is recoverable, which is good if deletion happened unintentionally or accidentally. What if you want to destroy your private data like your account details, company’s private data etc permanently from your external USB drive. It is better to use file eraser software. When the disk space is overwritten continuously by the random values then it becomes unreadable, so it cannot be recovered by the Data recovery softwares.
Remo File Eraser is one of the best file shedder tool available in market, which uses 9 different shredding methods that is completely based on different security standards. The supported data shredding patterns are Fast Zero overwrite, Random overwrite, NATO standard- North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Peter Guttmann Secure Deletion etc. This software has customized In-built scheduler, which will shred data as per the scheduled event or time. You can download the free demo version of this software.
When the software is launched, it will detect all the internal and external drives in your PC from where you can select your external USB drive and proceed. This software supports FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and NTFS5 drives and you can shred files and folders using the Shredding zone, which will provide drag and drop functionality. You can shred files and folders anywhere from Windows using “Context menu integrated” option. There is another option as “Superior drive wiping” which will shred entire hard drive permanently. You can buy the licensed software later, when you are satisfied with the amount of work done by this tool and when you think it is the ultimate software to shred your files from external USB drive.