Gourt Home::Gourt :: Shredding
- For other uses, see shredder.
Shredding an item is literally to rip or tear it into strips. Shredders are machines that shred objects such as documents and garden waste.
Computers
In the context of computers, "shredding" refers to the act of deleting, or wiping a file securely, so that it cannot be restored by any means. This is done either using file shredder software, or by issuing a "secure delete" command, as opposed to a "delete" command from the operating system.
In many operating systems, the act of deleting a file will only mark the disk space occupied by the file as available (for use by new files, or files growing in size), and mark the file as gone from the directory it was in, but leave the actual contents of the file on the disk. This permits restoration and recovery of recently deleted files via tools such as the MS-DOS undelete command.
Because the disk space is marked as available, it will eventually (assuming the disk gets written to) be used by other files, replacing the contents of the deleted file. At this point, the file can no longer be recovered by software. However, it may still be possible to recover the file by more advanced, physical means, because older magnetic recordings (such as those on a hard disk) can be read using the right equipment, even with new recordings on the same disk.
For Unix, the Unix command shred can be used. For Windows, and a number of Windows file shredder programs exist such as Heidi Eraser, the QDS Security Toolkit, and ShredIt for Windows. These will repeatedly overwrite the file with other data (typically random binary data or all zeros) a large number of times, to make such physical recovery more difficult. For Mac, some versions of the operating system offer a "secure delete" command, such as the "Secure Empty Trash" command. In addition, file shredder software, such as ShredIt are also available.
Shredding depends on the assumptions that files are not moved in the file system during their lifetime, which fails if defragmentation is done, and that they are overwritten in place, which may fail on modern file systems. These can be addressed by shredding the whole partition rather than individual files. Even this may fail, since hard disk controller may mark sectors as bad and these may contain data but are not visible to the operating system.
If one wants to be absolutely sure that the file is not recoverable by any means, a suggested approach is to incinerate the media (e.g. burning the hard drive to raise the platters above their Curie point). Another approach is to destroy the media with acid. A much safer way to erase the media so it can not be recovered is to use a degausser. As an alternative, the file can be stored using strong encryption at all times, in which case there won't be any useful data to recover, assuming the encryption key is secure.
Although destruction of the media, degaussing or encrypting data are all effective ways to protect data privacy, they are also more than is required by the average user. Using file shredder software is sufficient to ensure that the data can't be recovered using commercially available tools by either the next owner of the computer, or by someone who has stolen the computer, or the data.
Music
In the context of an electric guitar, "shredding" refers to a virtuosic, highly technical style of playing the instrument, as exemplified by the virtuosos of the eighties such as Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, Greg Howe, Tony MacAlpine, Shawn Lane, Steve Vai, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Buckethead, or Joe Satriani.
The style of shred guitar is strongly founded in technique and theory. Many shred guitarists are extremely well versed in music theory and classical music. Much time is devoted to the development of technique through numerous exercises. A key practice tool is the metronome. Many virtuosic techniques displayed by "shredders" include sweep picking, tapping, legato, alternate picking, string skipping, as well as a combination of the aforementioned techniques.
Although shred is not as prominent today as in the 80's, highly technical guitar playing can still be found in many genres. Progressive metal and Death Metal contains many guitar virtuosos. John Petrucci, guitarist for Dream Theater, exemplifies the "prog metal" guitarist as well as guitar extraordinaire Michael Romeo from the progressive band Symphony X . And Chuck Schuldiner from the band Death, (Death/Tech/Progressive metal) also exemplifies highly virtuosic abilities on the guitar. Modern shred guitarists such as Francesco Fareri and Rusty Cooley have found an audience by utilising the internet
There are a handful of good shred guitar websites on the internet such as 'Shredaholic', and 'TruthInShredding' which feature content ranging from guitar lessons to discussion forums, and often offer help to aspiring instrumental artists trying to get heard. Podcasts such as Bieber Labs even feature music with permission of the artists.
Skiing, Mountain Biking
In the context of skiing, snowboarding and Mountain Biking "shredding" is slang for moving with speed and style.
Other uses
- Shredding also refers to a tree pruning technique mainly used in Europe.
- Shredding also refers to garden waste shredders and mulchers.
- Shredding also refers to food preparation and processing.
See also
External links
- Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory by Peter Gutmann
"Shredding"