DriveScrubber - Securely Wipe All Data From a Drive

System Mechanic Premium users have integrated access to the built-in drive wiping software, DriveScrubber.

Why use it:

Many people believe that when they delete a file, it is permanently erased. In actuality, the data within the file still remains on your drive. This is because of how an operating system saves and deletes files.

When you save a file, your PC stores the file name in a file allocation table. The data that actually makes up the file is saved directly on your computer's drive. When you delete a file, the computer removes the reference of the file from the file allocation table, but the data still remains on the drive. The space occupied by that data is marked as "free space" and is available for overwriting by other newly saved files. But, the data remains on the drive until another file is saved over it.

Even though you can't see the file (for example, through Windows Explorer), someone using easily available tools can recover the file and view its contents. For sensitive data, this poses a security risk, and can lead to confidential information falling into the wrong hands.

Incinerating files erases the data remnants and tracks left by deleted files. The Incinerator erases data by overwriting it with random characters.

Prior to giving a computer away, use this DriveScrubber tool to create a bootable disk that can completely wipe all data.

Instructions:

Click Securely Remove Deleted File Traces to open the DriveScrubber program in a separate window. This program allows you to permanently wipe away data so that it cannot be recovered.

To wipe all the contents of a drive, DriveScrubber uses a bootable disk that runs a DOS-based program. This allows all data, including the operating system, to be erased. You can create a bootable disk by clicking Wipe All Contents of a Drive, which guides you through the process.

Once you have a bootable disk, put the bootable disk in the drive, start or restart your computer, and then follow the on-screen instructions to wipe all the contents of selected drives.

Note: Help specific to DriveScrubber is provided in the program. Click Help from the menu bar on top of the DriveScrubber Home page. To get help for a specific task, click the Help button on any of the screens or windows.

DriveScrubber: Securely Wipe All Data From a Drive

To access:

What it does:

Why use it:

Instructions: