Wash your disk

When you go through the process of deleting a file in DOS, the contents of that file are not removed from the disk: the file is marked in the directory as deleted, and the space it occupied on disk is freed. This makes possible the undeletion of previously deleted files, which is often a life-saving boon but can also be a security risk. I have also heard of cases where confidential data has inadvertently been sent over the Internet because the transmitting software read and sent out unerased data beyond the end of the file being transmitted. So for the sake of security and confidentiality it is good practice to periodically remove the remnants of deleted files from disk.

The Xtree command for this is Wash, invoked by Alt-W from the directory window. You have the option of a single-pass data overwrite or, for extra security, a six-pass operation. Before starting either operation you must make sure, though, that there aren't any files that were deleted in error, because after Washing they will not be recoverable; that, after all, is the purpose of Wash.

Tom Ruben

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