WipeDrive 3.0

Rating:
Summary: A must have for any computer owner
Review: Before you ever sell or even throw out an old computer or hard drive, be sure to buy this program! Even after deleting everything or formatting your harddrive, sensitive and personal information can still be accessed. This program will ensure that your computer is cleaned completely so that your information is really gone. It even conforms to Department of Defense standards! And the great thing is, is that it doesn't matter what operating system your using, since it boots right from the CD.

Rating:
Summary: A must have for any computer owner
Review: Before you ever sell or even throw out an old computer or hard drive, be sure to buy this program! Even after deleting everything or formatting your harddrive, sensitive and personal information can still be accessed. This program will ensure that your computer is cleaned completely so that your information is really gone. It even conforms to Department of Defense standards! And the great thing is, is that it doesn't matter what operating system your using, since it boots right from the CD.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking Features
Review: I had no trouble operating the software, and it consistently appeared to perform the task of overwriting all portions of my hard drive. The problem, though, is that when the program cleans or verifies that the drive is clean, it displays only a percentage of the space on the hard drive, rather than the amount of space. Because I got the program for the purpose of permanently eliminating malware on my drive, I never knew if Wipedrive was able to clean that part of the drive. Wipedrive offers no means for examining the raw data on the drive or for determining the total space that it verifies is clean. Also, even with an average size 80 GB drive, each overwrite takes an extremely long time, as does the verification routine. You can clean only the entire hard disk and cannot limit it to one drive or partition. It would be helpful if you could selectively clean and/or scan only a portion of the drive, or scan from the end instead of from the beginning. In sum, the product seems well designed for a routine, single cleaning to eliminate personal data on an entire hard disk, but its lack of options left me wondering if it had done the job for me. A partition manager plus one of the free downloads (such as Eraser) could be a better choice in some situations.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking Features
Review: I used to use PGP which integrated easily with Windows Explorer's shell. However, I always had a pesky service running from it, so I started using Eraser 5.7, which is open source and it works great. Don't get too caught up with the DoD verbage. Many secure data removal apps have it.

*CAUTION* In my personal experience, overuse of these apps can heavily strain your hard disks. Use only when necessary. Though I can't prove it, I believe both of my Maxtor hard disks failed, at least in part, because of overuse of PGP's disk utility.

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser

Rating:
Summary: There are open source alternatives
Review: I used to use PGP which integrated easily with Windows Explorer's shell. However, I always had a pesky service running from it, so I started using Eraser 5.7, which is open source and it works great. Don't get too caught up with the DoD verbage. Many secure data removal apps have it.

*CAUTION* In my personal experience, overuse of these apps can heavily strain your hard disks. Use only when necessary. Though I can't prove it, I believe both of my Maxtor hard disks failed, at least in part, because of overuse of PGP's disk utility.

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser

Rating:
Summary: Great Program, but FREE version available
Review: It is true that your data or files are not completely deleted when you format your hard drive. You can actually retrieve some of the files or datas even in DOS-mode. But this WipeDrive 3.0 actually erases all the data in the hard drive. It is indeed impressive. Even so, because it meets the standard of Department of Defense (DoD).

BUT, if you are a casual computer user, just want to sanitize and clean your hard-drive more than just a FORMAT level, you do not need this program. You can get FREE utility via download. Try free Active@KILLDISK version 3.0 (www.killdisk.com). But if you absolutely have to destroy all the data because of its sensitive materials, you should get this program. Note that FREE versions do not meet the DoD standard, however, it does more than regular FORMAT.

In sum, WipeDrive 3.0 indeed does what it claims. BUT for casual users, FREE utility in the web is more than enough.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time and money
Review: This product did not work for me. It was a waste of time and money. The box promised ease of use for any system. Well, it didn't work on my windows 98 system no matter what I tried. After several unsuccessfull attempts booting to the WipeDrive CD (and floppy you can create from the CD), I tried booting up to WipeDrive AFTER reformatting my hard drive. Still no success. All I got every time was beeping and flashing gibberish on the screen for over 30 minutes each attempt.