3 Apps to Wipe Your Hard Drive
By jimon 06/16/2023 |
Active KillDisk (Freeware)
Want to destroy the information on your hard drive to make it impossible to recover? The active Active KillDisk is for you. The application will run on either a bootable floppy disk, USB Flash or CD-ROM, which allows the software to access the hard drives on the "physical level" via the Basic Input-Output Subsystem (BIOS), meaning it bypasses the operating system's logical drive structure to ensure your data will be permanently erased.
Active KillDisk will work on all storage devices regardless of what operating system, file system, or type of computer.
The software comes in two versions, the free version, which only offers the ability to do one pass (one wipe) with only zeros. This means the software will overwrite your hard drive with zeros one time, therefore erasing any data on the drive. This in itself is a fairly secure method of erasing data. However, if you are truly concerned and/or giving your hard drive/computer to a stranger, you may want to consider purchasing Active KillDisk Professional, which conforms to US Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M, which basically means if the government think that this method is secure enough for them -- it probably is for you too.
Also, if you were wondering, the DoD wipes their hard drives using three different methods. The first is to overwrite all the data on the drive with zeros. Next they overwrite the drive again by inverting the bits (swapping the 1's and 0's), and finally, they overwrite the drive again with random characters.
Pricing for Active KillDisk Professional is $29.95.
Eraser (Freeware)
Eraser allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. It's completely free and offers several different deleting options, including the "Gutmann" wipe, which will overwrite the data being deleted 35 times. For less paranoid people, Eraser also offers other erasing options that aren't as "excessive." Eraser also sports other features like Context Menu integration, so you can right-click a file/folder and use Eraser to delete it.
The software works with Windows XP (with Service Pack 3), Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 2), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2. One thing worth noting is that, unlike Active KillDisk, Eraser is strictly a Windows application -- it does not have a bootable version.
HDShredder (Freeware)
Similar to Active KillDisk, HDShredder deletes the contents of hard disks and other mass storage media at the physical level. HDShredder can also be applied to individual partitions, and users can select to perform the deletion according to international security standards. HDShredder works independently of partition layout, file system, and operating system. It also works with proprietary formats which otherwise would be unaccessible.
When you download HDShredder, it comes with two different packages, a Windows program (HDShredder/W) and a bootable program (HDShredder/S). You can easily create a bootable HDShredder/S floppy disk and/or CD/DVD on Windows with just a few clicks of the mouse.
In addition to the free version of HDShredder, there is also a Basic, Standard, Professional, and Enterprise version that offers additional features, functionality, and speed. You can find more information about that and the pricing on the company's site.
Want to destroy the information on your hard drive to make it impossible to recover? The active Active KillDisk is for you. The application will run on either a bootable floppy disk, USB Flash or CD-ROM, which allows the software to access the hard drives on the "physical level" via the Basic Input-Output Subsystem (BIOS), meaning it bypasses the operating system's logical drive structure to ensure your data will be permanently erased.
Active KillDisk will work on all storage devices regardless of what operating system, file system, or type of computer.
The software comes in two versions, the free version, which only offers the ability to do one pass (one wipe) with only zeros. This means the software will overwrite your hard drive with zeros one time, therefore erasing any data on the drive. This in itself is a fairly secure method of erasing data. However, if you are truly concerned and/or giving your hard drive/computer to a stranger, you may want to consider purchasing Active KillDisk Professional, which conforms to US Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M, which basically means if the government think that this method is secure enough for them -- it probably is for you too.
Also, if you were wondering, the DoD wipes their hard drives using three different methods. The first is to overwrite all the data on the drive with zeros. Next they overwrite the drive again by inverting the bits (swapping the 1's and 0's), and finally, they overwrite the drive again with random characters.
Pricing for Active KillDisk Professional is $29.95.
Eraser (Freeware)
Eraser allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. It's completely free and offers several different deleting options, including the "Gutmann" wipe, which will overwrite the data being deleted 35 times. For less paranoid people, Eraser also offers other erasing options that aren't as "excessive." Eraser also sports other features like Context Menu integration, so you can right-click a file/folder and use Eraser to delete it.
The software works with Windows XP (with Service Pack 3), Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 2), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2. One thing worth noting is that, unlike Active KillDisk, Eraser is strictly a Windows application -- it does not have a bootable version.
HDShredder (Freeware)
Similar to Active KillDisk, HDShredder deletes the contents of hard disks and other mass storage media at the physical level. HDShredder can also be applied to individual partitions, and users can select to perform the deletion according to international security standards. HDShredder works independently of partition layout, file system, and operating system. It also works with proprietary formats which otherwise would be unaccessible.
When you download HDShredder, it comes with two different packages, a Windows program (HDShredder/W) and a bootable program (HDShredder/S). You can easily create a bootable HDShredder/S floppy disk and/or CD/DVD on Windows with just a few clicks of the mouse.
In addition to the free version of HDShredder, there is also a Basic, Standard, Professional, and Enterprise version that offers additional features, functionality, and speed. You can find more information about that and the pricing on the company's site.
