14 DAY TRIAL // Simple deletion of the data on the hard disk does not mean that the files are lost forever, and this is a well-known fact. ProtectStar Data Shredder helps you make sure that once you erase an item you also cut all possibilities of retrieving it. The application is especially useful on sensitive data that needs not be caught by the glimpse of prying eyes.
It is a professional program and the $49.90 on its price tag show that it does not come cheap. Installation procedure takes you through the regular screens, with no windows promoting third parties components.
It comes with a wizard-based interface that guides you through every data shredding operation you choose. This way you can be sure that the job is always carried out successfully.
All the shredding options are displayed in the main application window and include wiping of files, folders and free space as well as specific areas such as temporary data or entire drives, either fix or removable. An additional option available in the program is moving files and folders to a defined location and then sanitizing their original storage place.
The quality of a good file shredder consists in the algorithms it puts at your disposal for wiping the data. In the case of ProtectStar Data Shredder the offer is quite generous as it encompasses a set of nine standards. Although the famous Peter Gutmann is not a standalone choice, the standards’ overwriting ranges from 1 pass to 50, and make sure the data is unrecoverable. Also, these include options specially tailored for SSD (Solid State Drives) devices.
Depending on the number of passes the algorithm has to execute in order to render the data unrecoverable the application can spend more or less time on the job. The lower the number of overwrites, the higher the execution speed.
German BSI standard (8 passes) and a proprietary deletion algorithm which sports a whopping 50 passes are two of the longest to finish, but also the most reliable. The latter is a combination of US Department of Defense standards, Peter Gutmann’s and ProtectStar’s own rules.
Configuration panel in ProtectStar Data Shredder is accessible only from the main application window, despite the fact that the button is present all throughout the file shredding wizard. The list of settings is not large and comprises the possibility to protect them with a password or select the default shredding method and lock it so that it cannot be changed.
As it is a professional program ProtectStar Data Shredder automatically stores reports of the shredding activity. You can set the report format from HTML and Microsoft Word format. At the bottom of the printable file you can add a signature field. Creating the report, however, is optional.
The usage of the application extends beyond secure cleaning important files or folders, to sanitizing the free space on a drive or wiping temporary data in the Recycle Bin and Windows or Internet-related items created while web-browsing. You get to select the type of data you want to be erased and the browsers that created it (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari 5).
Our tests included the latest stable versions of the web browsers (except for Safari) and revealed that the shredder has no trouble cleaning up the cookies, cache data or history created. It wiped clean all these areas, and in the case of Firefox even bookmarks were eliminated.
Moving data to a different place does not involve more effort from the program than copying the items to a user-defined location before starting what it does best: sanitizing the area. Our attempts to retrieve shredded items failed at all times. The program not only corrupted the files, but their names were also obfuscated. All the recovery tools could see were randomly named items with no extension attached.
When destructing the data ProtectStar Data Shredder shows the progress of the job in percentage, but it also estimates a completion time. The amount of details offered in this screen also includes the shredding algorithm used, speed of the process in KBs and the file currently being wiped.
If you want it to automatically close after all shredding completes, the program can work in “Silent mode”, which can be activated as default from the settings panel or you can turn it on from the screen showing the data wiping progress.
All the tests we threw at ProtectStar Data Shredder were passed with flying colors. The application not only manages to render deleted data unrecoverable through conventional means, but it can also clean important areas that hold web browsing data from the major browsers on the market.
The application can create reports showing the destroyed files along with information about the system the entire operation was performed on. The configuration panel can be accessed only from the main screen of the application window. Once you get into the wizard you will no longer be able to reach the program’s settings. The set of shredding algorithms is generous and allows you to pick one that makes the best compromise between the amount of overwrite passes and time to carry out the job.
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GIVEAWAY:
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