[orestis34]

What is the command in DOS to write all zero's or random data when deleting a file (like wiping it out completely)? Or even to write small fragments of random data on certain parts of it like in the beggining middle or end?
The point is to make the file unrecoverable or at least hard to recover completely.

[ChuckE]

There is no regular DOS command to do that, but there are plenty of utilities, most of them free, that will do that.

By the way, you don't want to write just "small fragments of random data on certain parts of it" because if you write fewer than the same number of bytes (actually sectors - but the same point) then that will leave part of the file still unwritten over. Thus, possible exposure to whoever it is you are trying hide expunged data from.

Do a Google search for "file wiper dos freeware."

[orestis34]

If I write random files over the deleted ones then I guess it's just as safe to believe that the deleted files will no longer be recoverable, right?

[ChuckE]

Perhaps. Depending upon the size of the file you write.

I have heard that there are some experts that can recover some files after they have been written over, and even if the hard drive has been reformatted. But I never worry that much about it - nor do I worry about those black helicopters.