Cipher: Overwrite memory to make the deleted files unrecoverable

There is a built-in tool in windows, using which you can clean the deallocated files in you hard drive.

Some theory: Basically, when you delete files on your PC, the files aren't completely lost. The memory is just deallocated for storing new data. This makes it possible to recover deleted files.

But however, if you want to sell your PC or hard disk, it is recommended to clean it completely. And you should not allow anyone to recover your deleted files also. This is important to those who takes their privacy as an very important issue.

This is how you can clean your memory, and delete your deleted files from drives savely.

I don't see any disadvantage in this method as MicroSoft itself is providing a tool to do that

Cipher

You can use cipher.exe to clean all of your deallocated drive space.

Use the following command to do it for C drive

cipher /w:C

Similarly you can do it for other drives also

cipher /w:D

cipher /w:E

cipher /w:F

cipher /w:G

Last Updated on Jun 29, 2020