Erasing Hard Drives

Don't Just Delete It

Smart Computing, Aug 2003
Most secure deletion programs let you get rid of certain files on your hard drive so that no one could recover them. Erasing hard drives is different with WipeDrive PRO.

The difference with WipeDrive PRO from WhiteCanyon, is that it can quickly overwrite an entire drive, letting you rest easy after you give away or sell the drive.

WipeDrive prompts you to make a bootable diskette the first time you run it. In most cases, you run WipeDrive from this boot disk. After you reboot, the utility launches in DOS (Caldera DR-DOS, actually).

It won't automatically start erasing hard drives, though. You'll see a menu of simple options that let you view information about your hard drive(s) and WipeDrive itself.

You'll have the opportunity to choose a specific hard drive to overwrite if you have more than one attached to the system. WipeDrive even goes out of its way to remind you twice that erasing hard drives is permanent and it will erase all data on the drive, not just selected files or partitions.

On a 2.6GHz P4 system, WipeDrive overwrote a 13.5GB drive once in roughly 10 minutes. As disk utilities go, it was a pleasure to use.

You can set WipeDrive to overwrite data any number of times, although some authorities say once is enough. WipeDrive also lets you specify particular or random characters with which it will overwrite your drive. You can even order WipeDrive on a bootable CD if you have no floppy drive, so consider that before you buy the download version of the program.

WipeDrive PRO allows for erasing hard drives on up to 100 drives on any system. WipeDrive, costs less ($39.95), and lets you erase the hard drives on as many as 20 PCs any number of times.

For more targeted erasure, WhiteCanyon offers a utility called SecureClean ($39.95). SecureClean helps you clean your hard drive of unwanted data that is collected and stored during normal computer use.

Assuming WipeDrive PRO and SecureClean are as friendly and powerful as WipeDrive, you have some very inviting options in erasing hard drives.