Abstract: An apparatus and method for secure data deletion. The apparatus includes an enclosure, a connector for communicatively coupling to a computing device, a storage medium disposed within the enclosure and communicatively coupled to the connector, and self-contained software disposed on the storage medium. The software is configured to execute, on a processor, the steps of selecting for deletion files disposed on storage media accessible on the computing device, and performing a secure deletion action on the files. The software is further configured to execute the step of performing a deep scan for each file of the selected files. The deep scan includes canning storage media accessible on the computing device for files similar to the file, wherein files similar to the file are reformatted, duplicate, edited, changed, modified or similar files.