After the selection, click on Erase Now button to erase the selected files.You can do that two ways- either you can drop the file directly or you can use the Add items button to add the file(s) On the next screen, select the location where the file(s) you wish to delete reside.Now click ‘Home’ and then click ‘Erase Files and Folders.’.Go to the ‘Settings’ tab and then choose the erasure algorithm and verification method from the respective drop-downs.Go to Tools and choose the desired Erasure Algorithm and Verification method from the respective dropdowns.Connect the WD external portable hard drive (decrypt the storage if encryption is enabled).

This tool uses 3 internal data erasure standards to erase & wipe your files & folders from your WD external drive volumes.įollow these steps to Sanitize files from your WD Portable External Hard Drive: However, if the data that you want to wipe from your WD portable external hard drive is critical and confidential, consider using a reliable and trusted data erasure tool such as BitRaser File Eraser. To wipe any file from your WD portable external hard drive, you can use SDelete program from Microsoft or a third party Eraser tool.

Delete Files from WD Portable External Hard Drive Therefore, you need to wipe your WD portable external hard drive in order to ensure the file is permanently destroyed. Then again, there is no way to find out if the new data that you add to drive will overwrite those particular sectors (deleted files). The deleted filed still remain on the hard drive and can be recovered with a data recovery tool unless overwritten by new data. In other words, the OS deallocates the deleted file sectors for new data and only makes it hard to access.

The operating system only deletes the path to access that file from the File System. Even when you empty recycle bin or use Shift+Delete to delete a file permanently, it is not wiped immediately and remains vulnerable to recovery. When you delete a file, it goes into the recycle bin, from where it can be restored in just a few clicks.

Delete Files from WD Portable External Hard Driveĭestroying files from a Windows PC or an external storage device is not as easy as it seems.

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