Wiping, Shredding, Deleting, Erasing – What’s the Difference?

Each one of these words means something different. You can delete something without erasing it, but you can erase a drive without wiping it, shred a file without actually deleting it and wipe all your files even when they’re already deleted!

If you’re confused, don’t worry – most of us are! Here is how all these words differ and what exactly each of them means…

DELETE – Hiding something, but it’s still actually there.

When you delete something, whether it is a photo or a folder, you do not get rid of it forever – it is still there, you’ve just hidden it! All deleted files, especially recent ones are easy to get back, simply go to the recycle bin or use data recovery software.

ERASE – You’ll never see it again.

Erasing something in the world of tech means that it is truly gone for good. Unless you never want to ever use something again, such as a flash drive or a memory card, it’s best to wipe or scrub the data instead of erasing it. In short, scrubbing and wiping are the same as erasing; only the level of erasing differs.

WIPE – This will erase everything.

When you wipe a hard drive it will erase everything that is currently on it. Since a wipe will get rid of everything, it is best to only do this to a storage device once you are 100% sure you are done with it and want to start from scratch.

SHRED – It will only erase what is selected.

When you shred something, whether it is a video, file or folder you will erase only whatever you have selected – nothing else! Because shredding something is used on a small collection of files, using a file shredder tool is a good way to really erase whatever you’d otherwise delete.

These terms are often used interchangeably, but they really shouldn’t be because they mean completely different things!

The Computer Guyz are a leading provider in IT services and equipment. Do not hesitate to contact us on 087 001 0511/2 or email contact@tcgcape.co.za