Software to wipe a hard drive

A powerful rare earth magnet can also be used to destroy the platter in the hard drive. Your PC is likely packed with personal files. Norton Utilities is a handy tool that keeps your PC running like new. It fixes common issues that slow down or crash your PC. It also frees up space by finding duplicate files and unused applications.

Safely dispose of personal documents, so no one can access them. Think of it as a digital shredder. Norton Utilities helps keep what you do on your computer private. It can permanently erase all record of your computer and web-based activities to help protect your privacy.

It also safely disposes of personal documents permanently and renders them inaccessible. Most of all, it maintains your digital privacy by erasing your recently opened files and website browsing history. All rights reserved.

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Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. How To. Security Center How To 5 steps to wipe a computer hard drive. July 13, Join today.

Cancel anytime. Start Free Trial. Read More. Step 3: Use a program to wipe your drive Special software programs can permanently erase your hard drive. Step 4: Physically wipe your hard drive If you want to double-ensure your hard drive is wiped, you can take additional measures.

What are the risks of not wiping my hard drive? Types of data deletion No matter what kind of data you had on your computer before you decided to donate or recycle it, it pays to play it safe. Destroy the hard drive A sure way to completely destroy the hard drive is to make it physically impossible to access the disks.

Editorial note: Our articles provide educational information for you. NortonLifeLock offerings may not cover or protect against every type of crime, fraud, or threat we write about. It can wipe hard drives, memory sticks, SD cards, etc. Another program that is similar to Disk Wipe is Eraser. The software is open-source and is routinely updated.

The latest version supports Windows 7 and Windows Server Again, the downside is that it only supports the Windows operating system and can only erase the data on drives that support Windows. Eraser does not support as many advanced algorithms as the other programs mentioned above and is therefore not the best option if you really need to securely erase your hard drive.

This program is free, but has a speed cap on it, which is around GB per hour. Overall, your best options are DBan and KillDisk for really getting just about any hard drive wiped with the highest level of security. Is there a program that you use to wipe data securely? If so, post a comment here and let us know. Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. Below is a list of the best, completely free data destruction software programs available today:. Data Sanitization Methods: DoD The DBAN program's menu interface is also very easy to use.

DBAN is an open-source project and a great tool that should certainly be your first choice if wanting to completely erase a hard drive. However, you should know that it does not support SSDs. To erase the hard drive that's running an operating system, you're required to boot to the program, whereas deleting another internal or external drive can be done with the Windows version. In addition to the above, you can create your own custom method to include 1s, 0s, random data, or custom text with a custom number of passes.

The bootable version tells you how large each drive is, but that's about the only identifiable information given, whereas the Windows version makes it easier to know what drive you're about to wipe clean.

MHDD is another data destruction tool that utilizes Secure Erase to erase both mechanical and solid-state hard drives. The thing we like best about MHDD is the variety of easy-to-use forms that it's downloadable in.

You can download an ISO file for disc or flash drive booting, a floppy image, the program itself ready for your own boot disk, and more.

Data Sanitization Methods: Secure Erase. There is plenty of documentation, a FAQ, and even a forum for the MHDD data destruction program, all accessible from their download page. Using PCDiskEraser is really easy because you simply select the disk that should be erased, confirm the selection, and then PCDiskEraser immediately begins shredding the whole disk. We were unable to use a mouse in PCDiskEraser even though a cursor was available.

We had to use the tab and space keys to move around within the program, which wasn't a huge concern but did make using it a little harder than it had to be. Data Sanitization Methods: Write Zero. Like the above bootable data destruction software, you can download a simple ISO file for burning to disc or USB drive. You can also install a regular application to run KillDisk from within the OS. KillDisk works with both regular hard drives and solid state drives. Unfortunately, some of KillDisk's settings work only in the professional version.

There's also a Linux and Mac version available. Beginning in Windows Vista, the format command was granted the ability to write zeros during the format, giving the command basic data destruction abilities. Since all Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and Vista users already have the format command at their disposal, this is a quick and effective data destruction method.

Granted, you won't be able to satisfy some stringent data sanitization standards, but if that's not a concern then this option is perfect. The format command included with Windows XP and prior operating systems does not support this option. However, there is a way to use this method on a computer with Windows XP if you have access to another computer with Windows 11—7. The instructions linked here explain how to use the format command either as a data destruction tool from a bootable disc, enabling you to completely erase the primary drive, or as a way to erase any other drive from Command Prompt from within Windows.

Macrorit Data Wiper is different than the above programs in that it doesn't run from a bootable disc. Instead, it's a portable program that you must open from your computer like you would a regular program.

The program has a very nice look to it and is super easy to use. Just select a hard drive regular or SSD that should be erased and choose a wiping method. Windows is the only supported operating system, and because you have to run Macrorit Data Wiper from the hard drive, you're unable to use it to wipe the primary drive.

Eraser is pretty easy to use and serves as a well-designed data destruction program with some unique features. As far as advanced options go, Eraser wins the data destruction competition hands down. With Eraser, you can schedule data destruction with all the precision you'd expect with any scheduling tool. This program should work with both traditional drives and SSDs. Because Eraser runs from within Windows, you can not use the program to erase the drive that Windows runs on, usually C.

Use a bootable data destruction software program from this list or see How to Format C for other options. Eraser works in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.

Eraser also works on Windows Server through Freeraser, very much unlike some of the other programs on this list, is a full-fledged Windows application, complete with a setup wizard and Start Menu icons. We like Freeraser so much because it's incredibly easy to use. Freeraser can only delete files from a whole hard drive if it's connected over USB. Internal hard drives are not supported. Freeraser can also be used as a portable program by choosing that option during setup. Freeraser works with Windows 11 through Windows XP.

Disk Wipe is a completely portable data destruction tool that you run from within Windows. Disk Wipe is really easy to use because it walks you through a wizard to perform the data wipe.

Because it requires the OS to be running to work, it can't be used to erase the drive you have Windows running on, but it should work just fine for other mechanical and solid state drives. Hardwipe is another data destruction program that runs from inside Windows. You can clean free space or even wipe an entire drive SSD or traditional , so long as it's not your primary drive. Hardwipe is easy for anyone to use.

Just load the drive that should be cleaned and choose a data sanitization method that should be used. Secure Eraser is a software suite that serves not only as a registry cleaner but also as a data destruction tool.

After selecting the drive or partition that should be wiped, just click Start deletion to choose one of the above methods. After Secure Eraser has done its job, you can set it to reboot the computer, exit, or shutdown the computer.

Because Secure Eraser runs from within Windows, you can't use it to erase the hard drive that it's installed to like the C drive.

Secure Eraser attempts to install another program during setup that you must deselect if you don't want it. Right-click context menu integration is permitted as well as some unique wiping methods you won't find in many of the other programs listed here. To use PrivaZer to wipe away a whole drive, choose Delete without a trace from the main menu, select Sensitive directories , and choose a hard drive. Because PrivaZer can do many other privacy cleaning tasks like deleting old files and erasing internet activity traces, it can be a confusing process to use just the data wipe feature.

A portable version is also available from the download page. PC Shredder is a small, portable data wipe tool that runs like any other software in Windows. We like that PC Shredder is portable and has a simple interface. This program is primarily used as a disk management program, so finding the data wipe feature among all the other settings can be a little daunting.

Remo Drive Wipe is a nice looking data destruction program that runs inside Windows. You can wipe an entire disk with one of three different sanitization methods. Remo Drive Wipe is a pretty simple program. It walks you through a type of wizard where you select the drive to wipe and then choose a deletion method. We tested it in Windows 8 without any issues. While CCleaner is normally used as a system cleaner to remove temporary Windows files and other internet or cache files, it also contains a tool that can wipe free disk space or completely destroy all the data on a drive.

CCleaner works from within the operating system, so it can't wipe the data off the same drive that Windows is installed to. However, it can wipe the free space of that drive. You can choose more than one drive at once for CCleaner to wipe them all consecutively. It supports both SSDs and mechanical drives. Once CCleaner is opened, go to the Tools section and then select Drive Wiper to access this data wiping feature. Be sure to choose Entire Drive from the dropdown menu.

The latest version of CCleaner can be installed on Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7, as well as Windows Server and File Shredder is a data destruction tool that can erase a disk full of files by simply adding the drive's contents to the program. It recognizes both traditional and solid state drives. File Shredder isn't as easy to use as some of these programs because you can't drag the drive itself into the program. Instead, you have to drag and drop all the files and folders you want to delete.

However, you can grab the contents from the root of the drive and drop them into File Shredder.