TechTips - Delete Data Securely in Windows Vista and 7 Using Cipher Command

I know I have talked about securely erasing data before using a couple of different programs but now Windows comes with a built in tool that makes sure your data is gone for good. It's a simple command line tool that will overwrite your data with random characters to ensure that the file is deleted and can't be recovered. So if you use this command line tool make sure you no longer need the files you are deleting. In this guide I will explain what the command line tool does, why you need to make sure your files are delete and overwritten and the steps to complete the command to erase sensitive files.

In case you haven't read one of my other articles explaining about file deletion in Windows, let me give you a quick explanation. When you delete something from Windows you aren't actually removing the file from your hard drive (although it looks like you did). What your computer is doing is it removes the reference to that file from a table, well with the right program someone could potentially recover a file you think you have deleted. Well the way this command line tool (Cipher) works, is it will write random characters over the file location where the file was stored which makes sure that it can't be recovered.

With the amount of data and different things we store on our computers it's important to know and understand how to make sure that those files are protected and in fact deleted. If you ever sell your computer or just want to make sure that you did in fact delete the files so they are no longer just sitting on your computer for some hacker to come steal.

So now that we know why we need to securely erase our files lets go through the steps to erase a folder in the location C:\SkillSoft\New Folder

Click Start

Type CMD (in Search Bar)

Hit Enter

At the command prompt type cipher /W:C:\SkillSoft\New Folder

Hit Enter

You will get a prompt saying to close as many applications as possible so as much data as possible will be erased.

Close programs and Hit Enter

It should start Writing (might take some time)

Once it completes you are finished

That is all there is to it, now it should go through and overwrite your folder with all of your documents in it, depending on the size of the folder this could take some time. Now if you go to the location where you had your files (the C:\SkillSoft\New Folder folder) it shouldn't be there any longer.

Well now you know a simple command line tool that is included with windows Vista and 7 that will help you to securely delete and overwrite your sensitive data.