More news for November 2018

Following up on the new "Clean up" feature introduced earlier to DiskDigger for Android, I'm happy to introduce another brand new feature that adds a related capability: wiping free space. This is useful for ensuring that your deleted files (which are now considered free space in your device's memory) will no longer be recoverable, even with tools like DiskDigger.

The new "Wipe free space" feature can be accessed directly from the main screen of the DiskDigger app (underneath the selections of Basic Scan and Full Scan). It can also be accessed while performing a Full Scan by tapping the "Clean up" button.

Like the "Clean up" feature, the "Wipe free space" feature is still a bit experimental, so you should be aware of some of its caveats and limitations:

  • Wiping of free space is done by creating a temporary file and filling it with random data, until it consumes the entire amount of free space on your device. When the temporary file begins to reach the limit of free space, the Android system will usually display a notification that your available space is running out. You should ignore this notification until the wipe process is complete. When it finishes, it will delete the temporary file and free up the remaining space again.
  • It is possible that the Android system will stop DiskDigger from being able to write to the temporary file before the memory is completely full. This means that there is a possibility that not all of the free space will be wiped, and some deleted data might still be recoverable. You can always re-run DiskDigger and scan your device's memory to ensure whether the wipe was successful.
  • The wiping is done only on the internal memory of the device. The ability to wipe an external SD card will be added in a future version.
  • It's important to note that because the wiping is done by overwriting all the free space, it means that the process inflicts a significant amount of wear on the device's memory. This can potentially shorten the life span of the memory, and should be performed sparingly, and only when necessary.

These clean-up features are currently available only in the Android version of DiskDigger, but are currently in development for the Windows version, too. As always, for all your data recovery needs, download DiskDigger for Windows, or DiskDigger for Android!