How To Permanently Delete Data Using Built-in Cipher Tool Of Windows 7

When you delete files from your PC, anyone can recover it using recovery software. There are plenty of free recovery software like PC Inspector File Recovery, Recuva, etc. We have published article “6 Best Free File And Data Recovery Software For Windows” that may interest you.Similarly, there are many free software for securely deleting data from hard disk. But if you are using Windows, you don’t need any third-party software. Windows 7 has a built-in tool called the Cipher tool (cipher.exe). This tool permanently erases already deleted data from your hard disk. which means no one can recover deleted files even by using recovery software.

Cipher tool does this by rewriting the deleted data area in hard disk with random 0’s, 1’s and some special characters. By running Cipher tool, the deleted data becomes encrypted and will be impossible to recover by anyone. Note that Cipher tool works only for NTFS file system.

Here is how you can launch and use the tool.

1. Click “Start”—> Accessories –> Right-click on “Command Prompt” and click “Run as administrator”.

2. In the command window, type cipher /w:driveletter:\foldername and press enter. Substitute driveletter  with volume of drive and foldername is the path of the folder. For example, we input cipher /wD:\Private_Data in the command line for deleting “Private_Data” folder in “D” partition.

3. It will take a while for the process to complete depending upon the size of deleted data.