file shredding

[Chris Hills]

There are lots of high explosives that will shred media and the files
on them effectively. Thermite, a very hot fire, C4, and even a very small
nuclear explosive should work nicely.

(Note: C4 has nothing to do with C.)

It is a dialect of C using Forth?

 

[Richard Bos]

Not even Office Depot sell shredders capable of shredding files...

http://www.stanleytools.com/catalog_images/web_detail/22-004_web_detail.jpg

Not those files. But a computer file can be readily shredded by most
heavy-duty paper shredders, provided it's written on a 5 1/2" floppy.

Richard

 

[Al Balmer]

An alternative is to remove the disk drive and apply the axe.

Is that what they mean by partitioning the drive?

The thermite will work for disk drives, as well In the Army, they
put a thermite grenade on top of the safe containing sensitive
materials. When triggered, it would melt through the steel safe and
destroy the contents.

 

[Kevin Handy]

Did now. All that produces is a picture of a set of files (the
kind that rubs off metal).

<big fooz-bat to the head>
Key word: *files*. Run *files* through a *shredder*.
i.e. toss those rasps into the shred tray.
</big fooz-bat to the head>

 

[Kevin Handy]

File shredding is actually pretty simple - open the file, wite random
bytes over the entire data space, and save it again, then remove it.

But utterly fails with many types of file systems.
Transaction based file systems will keep the old data,
and save the new *random* data at a new spot. You now
have both versions on your disk. Probably not what was
wanted.

To reliably shred the file requires knowledge of the
file system and the OS used, which is off topic here.
Answers here are likely to be full of numerous holes.
Go to a newsgroup dedicated to your OS and file system.