Endpoint Encryption

High everyone.  I am new to the forum, but have been using PGP for many years and just starting using Windows 7.

In order to use the "Shred internal data structure" option in PGP's Shred Free Space feature, one must boot from a different OS partition.  In Windows 7 does any one know the procedure for setting up a different OS partition on the same HD with the same copy of Window 7? Do I have to also install PGP Desktop on this new OS partition in order to run Shred Free Space? Thanks.

You can install a dual booting system just as you would if you were not using PGP, but please refer to this Knowledge Base Article if you are using Whole Disk Encryption.  If you want to accomplish your goal of booting to one OS install and using it to shred the free space on the other OS's boot drive, you will need to have PGP installed on the OS install you are booting to.  If you want to wipe both boot drives, you will need PGP installed on both.

This is a Microsoft article on setting up dual booting.

After reviewing this and similar MS knowledge base articles it appears that I would have to install an entirely different OS on the new partition and could not just copy the existing systems files and registry to the new partition.  I was looking for a solution where I could take the essential system and boot files from the existing Windows 7 OS, copy them to the new partition, boot from the new partition, install PGP Desktop (I do not have WDE, but I do have an extra PGP Desktop license) and then run the the Shred Free Space on the old partition (C: drive).  Is this possible?

I am not aware of a way to do what you are hoping for.

After much review of the Windows on-line forums, it seems the dual boot partition is tricky affair and could lead to stability problems.

I have two laptops both running PGP Desktop (no Netshare or WDE).  One laptop has XP with SP3 and the other with Windows 7.  Is there anyway to connect the computers via a crossover cable or router, map the drives from one computer to the other, and then run Shred Free Space so the one computer shreds the free disk space on the other? Thanks

PGP Desktop Shred Free Space runs for about 30 seconds, saying it is Scanning Disk (the OS partition). I then get an error message that says "PGP Desktop has stopped running. Close Program."

I am running vs. 10 on Windows 7 with 64B processor. Also, Windows 7 reports incompatibility with PGP.

Now what?

You are likely to get more visibility and help if you use the Create Content button towards the top of the page to start new topics.

Did you use the required 64 bit PGP installer?  Both the 32 bit and the 64 bit installer are in the purchased PGP package.

"I am running vs. 10 on Windows 7 with 64B processor. Also, Windows 7 reports incompatibility with PGP."

I did have a customer report this same behavior. However, I have been running natively on Win7 64 bit since early last year. We ended up determining that it only affected the machine he was using. (In other words the othe Win7 64 bit systems in his environment did not complain.)

PGP Desktop will not shred a shared drive across a network. This is a design decision.

If you have some sort of adapter cable (SATA or IDE to USB) or external enclosure, you could use that to attach one system's drive to the other. Since this would not be across the network and would not be the system drive, PGP Desktop should allow you to shred either the free space or the entire drive.