If you are using a File Recovery App and you shred files using ShredIt or NetShred, you will be able to recover the names of the files you have shredded, but not the contents. For an explanation of why, read on. A File Recovery App will recover files that have been erased. It does this by keeping a separate directory of the files on your hard drive and keeping the current location of the last contents of the file. So, if you accidentally deleted your doctoral thesis, you could recover the file using a File Recovery App. But, if you had made changes to your thesis first, saved it and then deleted it, your File Recovery App could recover the file, but not recover it the way it once was, before you changed it. Both NetShred and ShredIt work by overwriting the contents of each file with other data before deleting the file. So, even if you use a File Recovery App, it can't recover data in the file the way it once was before NetShred or ShredIt overwrote the file with other data. It can, however, recover the file name since it stores this in it's own directory file. Since the function of a secure delete app is to make files unrecoverable and the function of a file recovery app is to make files recoverable, you have to decide which is more important to you. We'd recommend the following: - Since a File Recovery app stores the file name in it's own directory file, using such an app will make it possible to recover the file name. If you don't want this, don't use a file recovery app on your computer. - If you don't want to be able to recover the contents of any file you have shredded, but do want to be able to recover the contents of any file you have deleted, use both a file recovery app and a secure delete app on your machine. (Just make sure you don't shred a file you might want to recover.) This will be a good compromise provided that the ability to recover the file name does not compromise your security.