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SDelete Permanently Deletes Files in Windows 8, 10

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Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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Deleting a file for good from your Windows 8 system does not happen when you use theShift+Deletekeyboardcombination or when you empty the Windows Recycle Bin. By using the SDelete software, you will be able to permanently delete the wanted files from your command lineTheShift+Deletekeyboardcombination that many think is efficient against removing all the files from your Windows 8 only empties the Windows Recycle Bin and the files don’t get actually deleted. What happens is that Windows only removes the index for that file in the file system. If you want to delete a file for good, you can use the SDelete software, which is one of the Sysinternals tools provided by Microsoft (download link at the end).

Securely deleting a file that has no special attributes is relatively straight-forward: the secure delete program simply overwrites the file with the secure delete pattern. What is more tricky is securely deleting Windows NT/2K compressed, encrypted and sparse files, and securely cleansingdiskfree spaces. Compressed, encrypted and sparse are managed by NTFS in 16-cluster blocks. If a program writes to an existing portion of such a file NTFS allocates new space on thediskto store the newdataand after the newdatahas been written, deallocates the clusters previously occupied by the file. NTFS takes this conservative approach for reasons related todataintegrity, and in the case of compressed and sparse files, in case a new allocation is larger than what exists (the new compresseddatais bigger than the old compresseddata). Thus, overwriting such a file will not succeed in deleting the file’s contents from thedisk.

Read Also:Defraggler is the Best Solution to Defrag Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

SDelete is a command-line utility that overwrites the contents of free space on adiskso that no one can recover the deleteddatathat thediskcontains. It relies on the Windows defragmentation API to see whichdiskclusters hold deleteddata. Here are the command lines that you can use with SDelete:

Download SDelete from Windows Sysinternals

SDelete alternatives for all users

Not all the users might need SDelete on their Windows 8, 8.1 or 10 devices in order to permanently delete some files. This tool is not the easiest to use, and in this case, less skilled users might encounter some difficulties while using it. Well, we have considered this situation and prepared here a list of file deleters that you could use on your PC. Here it is:

Let us know in the comments if this article somehow helped you permanently delete files.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

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