Patent ID: 11940956
Assignee: HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT LP
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 7:
8. A computing device comprising:
at least one processing resource; and
at least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions executable by at least one processing resource to:
store chunks of data in at least one container of a deduplication store;
store in at least one container index:
chunk signatures representing the chunks;
location data for the chunks;
a secure flag for each chunk signature referenced by a first backup item of a plurality of backup items of the deduplication store, based on a request to store the first backup item as a secure item to be securely erased; and
for each chunk signature, at least one persistent item tag each corresponding to the chunk signature and identifying a respective backup item of the deduplication store that references or formerly referenced the chunk signature;

in response to a request to erase the first backup item and based on the secure flags, perform a secure erase procedure on each chunk referenced exclusively by the first backup item;
after some of the remaining chunks referenced by the backup items are erased, determine, based on the persistent item tags in the at least one container index, that all chunks formerly referenced by the first backup item have been securely erased; and
in response to the determination, output an indication that the first backup item has been securely erased.