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Shredding files on logical Raid drives.

Jeff
Jeff asked
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Can file shredders (like LSoft ZDelete) properly shred files on a logical drive on a Windows Server 2008 R2 system using a Hardware Raid controller (Dell PERC H700) configured for Raid 5?

I'm not looking to Wipe the whole drive(s), I want to shred individual files and have the system still work.

If not all shredders will work properly on logical raid drives, does anyone know one that will?
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Dr. KlahnPrincipal Software Engineer
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Commented:
If by "shred" you mean "render unreadable", any file eraser which overwrites the file (a) more than once (b) using semi-random data will do the job.  It does not matter whether the volume is a single drive or RAID; the clusters are overwritten.

File erasers do not, however, deal with discarded fragments of files left on the disk after standard "deletion" to the Recycle Bin.  All the Recycle Bin does is make those clusters available again; they are not overwritten, and so that data still exists until that cluster is re-used in a new file.  To deal with that situation requires a free space cleaner.
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Commented:
Yes, with traditional RAID arrays like your PERC the data blocks are always stored in the same place so they will overwrite the correct blocks.

Bear in mind though that if there are SSDs in it then they shredders don't work with or without RAID since the new data is not stored in the same physical location even though it is hidden from the host in the SSD's reserve area.
serialband
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Commented:
Start encrypting the disk.  If it's encrypted, there's no real need to "shred" files afterwards.
nobus
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Commented:
try also BC wipe, it does what you want : https://www.jetico.com/data-wiping/wipe-files-bcwipe
JeffConsultant

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Commented:
Thank You all for your responses.

andyalder picked up on that what I was concerned about was what sectors on the HDDs are rewritten by the eraser software when hardware raid devices and logical drives are involved.