ZDelete - Download Documentation

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Standards Used in This Guide

The following standards are used to provide more concise documentation:

Table 1 User Input  

INTRODUCTION

This chapter gives an overview of the ZDelete application.

Overview of ZDelete

ZDelete is designed to help protect your privacy by deleting files in such a way as to prevent other people from recovering your private data after deletion. ZDelete is a data cleanup and eraser utility that can delete selected folders, groups of files, Internet cache, history, cookies, etc. without any possibility of data recovery afterward. It allows you to use the Internet without leaving any history or residual data on your hard drive.

Integrated Disk Wiper can clear out all free space on a hard disk so that recovery of deleted files becomes impossible.

ZDelete conforms to US Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M. You can be confident that once your confidential files are destroyed with this secure deletion utility, sensitive information is eliminated forever. It is a powerful and flexible data shredder for information that must be permanently directed away from the hard drive. For safety and convenience, ZDelete provides a preview of the list of planned cleanup paths before engaging the process.

Features of ZDelete

Below is a list of main features for ZDelete:

• Graphical User Interface integrated with Windows Explorer and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

• Windows Drag-and-Drop and Hotkey functionality.

• Functions reside in context command menus.

• Clear Internet system folders, Internet cookies and Internet cache.

• ZDelete Can icon - Similar in operation to Windows Recycle Bin but different in purpose. Where the Recycle Bin provides a place to easily recover deleted files, ZDelete Can securely removes data forever.

• A custom profile can be defined for the Auto-Cleaner feature. All defined hard drive folders and files can be cleaned up all at once with just one click.

• With ZDelete Wizard you can easily configure Auto-Cleaner to run automatically at a specified time using the standard Microsoft Windows Task Scheduler.

• The program supports custom configuration of all options; e.g. the number of passes for data sweeping.

Purpose of ZDelete

 With today’s sophisticated data recovery utilities, confidentiality of deleted files is questionable with existing Windows Delete, Empty Recycle Bin, Clear History and Delete Temporary Internet Files commands. An intruder using a low-level disk editor or one of many data recovery tools will find deleted files are still recoverable. Even contents of deleted files, encrypted in Windows 2000 can be recovered. The only way to make sure that deleted files are not recovered is to use a secure application that explicitly destroys the data, overwriting and replacing hard drive surface with random data as the Department of  Defense recommends in DoD 5220.22-M / NISPOM 8-306. ZDelete is designed to be such a security tool and conforms to these structured standards.

ZDelete can conveniently take the place of standard delete commands in Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000 on any file system (FAT, FAT32, NTFS or NTFS5). ZDelete removes any possibility of unwanted file access or tracing of deleted data history and eliminates any chance of success for those using restored information against the owner's will.

Key Components

The table below lists key components of the utility:

Table 1-1 ZDelete Key Components

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