A single pass wipe, with verify. The product I’d recommend?
Personal use
Active@KillDisk Free. The free version only does one pass, so there’s not much to configure. It was a close tie between this product, and my second choice, Darik’s Boot & Nuke.
The feature which won me over? The utility to create a bootable USB memory stick “kill disk”.
Second choice: Darik’s Boot & Nuke.
DBAN is the choice most computer technicians I know make. I tripped across the “let’s hang if the laptop has a card reader” bug. That put me off DBAN. I’m sure it will be fixed soon.
Business use
BCWipe. The only commercially targeted product which offers a fully-functional evaluation copy. That counts for a lot in my opinion. BCWipe is also being actively developed (another plus). Go read my test of BCWipe for the rest of the details.
Summary of disk wipe products
| Software | Free | Review link | Price from |
| Highly recommended | |||
| Active@ KillDisk Free | Yes. | 68 minutes | – |
| Darik’s Boot and Nuke | Yes | 197 minutes | – |
| BCWipe Total WipeOut v.2.3 | No | 39 minutes | – |
| Recommended | |||
| CBL Data Shredder | Yes | 68 minutes | – |
| CopyWipe | Yes | 89 minutes | – |
| Not tested | |||
| Acronis® Drive Cleanser® 6.0 | No | $61 | |
| Active@ KillDisk | No | $40 | |
| Blancco | No | (soon) | – |
| CyberScrub CyberCide | No | $30 | |
| Destroy & Destroy Lite | No | $48 | |
| Disk Wipe | No | $49 | |
| Secure Erase | Yes | – | |
| EBAN 2.1 | No | ?? | |
| Iolo DriveScrubber | No | $20 | |
| OnTrack – Eraser | No | $60 | |
| WhiteCanyon WipeDrive | No | $20 | |
| Not recommended | |||
| East-Tec DisposeSecure | No | did not bother | $20 |
| O&O SafeErase 4 | Failed. | $30 | |
| PC INSPECTOR e-maxx | Yes | Failed. | – |
Related posts:
3 free, and 14 non-free, hard disk wiping programs.
Disk Wiping Test: Darik’s Boot and Nuke 2.2.6
Disk Wiping Test: CopyWipe v1.14
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