| Software | Ranking | Pros | Cons | Publisher's description | #1 choice | Must-Haves | Rating | License | HomePage | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 choice | Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows 2003 Server and DOS. Eraser is Free software and its source code is released under GNU General Public License. The patterns used for overwriting are based on Peter Gutmann's paper "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory" and they are selected to effectively remove magnetic remnants from the hard drive. Other methods include the one defined in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual of the US Department of Defence and overwriting with pseudorandom data. You can also define your own overwriting methods. | 1 people | 0 people | 0 0 0 0 0 | Free | http://eraser.heidi.ie/ | Windows | ||
| #2 choice | An ordinary deleting of files isn't enough! When you wish to delete any sensitive information, like industrial secrets or some unwanted content, you want to be sure that it will be deleted permanently. Sorry to say, there is a plenty of software recovery tools that can restore your deleted items. If you need to destroy any data and eliminate any possibility of its restoration you need a "shredder". This software destroys the data you choose before the deletion, using a complicated procedure of filling the actual content with random data. | 0 people | 0 people | 0 0 0 0 0 | Free | http://www.codyssey.com/products/freeraser.html | Windows |
