Hardwipe for Windows

User Reviews

• Useful and reliable file wiping tool.

  glvillagOctober 5, 2013

  Pros

  - Very effective secure data erasing - Easy to use with pause and speed (CPU priority) options - Context menu integration - Different standard wiping methods to choose - Very important : Recycler Bin and Disk Free Space wiping options. - Very good online support

  Cons

  May be for a future version, user can modify or add wiping methods.

  Summary

  Good performance, reliable and easy to use. Excellent tool.

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• The best wiping utility I've found

  Tony-81October 4, 2013

  Pros

  I was unable to recover any files that I've wiped Wipe directly from Explorer Portable version available Wipes disks, clean and wipe files Wipes recyclers User interface is well written Seems about the best wiping utility there is

  Cons

  Not bootable - can't wipe C drive

  Summary

  If you're looking for a bootable disk wiper that can wipe your primary disk, then Hardwipe isn't it. However, if an "inline" secure erase utility (one that runs in Windows) is what you need, then Hardwipe seems to be about the best there is. It supports full disk overwriting (just not on your main drive), but is absolutely perfect for wiping USB sticks and external drives. Overwriting single files is really easy, and Hardwipe is one of the few pieces of software I've found that lets you multiple select files and folders. Although, the website does say that wiping single files is not guaranteed if your disk going to be foresicly analysed, but I've tested Hardwipe against Recurva in deep scan mode and haven't been able tor recover anything. The interface is well designed. It also lets you right-click on files and drives from Windows Explorer, and lets you wipe whats in the recycler.

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• Superb & very effective

  FuzzzzyLogicOctober 4, 2013

  Pros

  Very effective & easy to use. Tested it against several offerings of data recovery software and it appears to work extremely well.

  Cons

  Make absolutely sure you want to permanently delete the files as you won't get them back...

  Summary

  5 stars...

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• Standalone option not really standalone.

  sqaengOctober 4, 2012

  Pros

  Cannot comment on overall operation because I did not run the program when I discovered "standalone" was not really that.

  Cons

  I assumed that "standalone" meant Hardwipe could be installed on a removeable media and executed independant of the hard disk resident operating system. I had planed to run Hardwipe from a USB flash drive, thinking I could mount and boot it on some obsolete PCs, to wipe their hard drives before disposing of them. Unfortunately, "standalone" did not mean that, just that it could be initiated from Windows Explorer within the Windows operating system.

  Summary

  Perhaps in the future the developer of Hardwipe will consider providing a truly standalone version.

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• beware or regret

  pavelhJuly 22, 2012

  Pros

  Seems to do most of the stuff.

  Cons

  This app follows links! You ask it to delete an *.lnk file and it doesn't. Instead it deletes the linked file. This obviously means that unwanted files may be wiped. In the worst case scenario (my case) you dump gigabytes of old data onto your hdd, browse it, then decide to wipe it only to realize some of the old, obsolete links may have linked to your new data. Too bad, that data got just wiped.

  Summary

  The IQ of some people is beyond me :-(<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Jul 22, 2012<p/>As stupid as it may sound, especially disputing somebody's IQ, I might have been wrong. Totally panicked after finding an incomplete wipe on my system which suggested followed links. Further test showed it does not follow links, but the reason for the incomplete wipe is still unresolved. Wouldn't be fair not to mention it though.<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Jul 23, 2012<p/>Researched some more and what happens is this: when adding files to be wiped, the app does not show actual *.lnk files (if present among the files to be wiped), but their targets. If the target is not present, the *.lnk file is not displayed among the added files to be wiped. The wipe itself does wipe only the actual shortcuts, but since some of them were not added you may end up with a folder that contains many unwiped *.lnk files for no appearant reason. It is especially confusing when you have a lot of files to be wiped. It is a confusing behavior, but certainly not nearly as critical as I have feared in the beginning so this app does not deserve the one star I gave it initially. I will ask cnet to increase my rating to four stars but I doubt they will be willing to do so.

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