#Best permanent eraser windows free#
#Best permanent eraser windows windows#

The question is about being fast AND permanent. That's why I ask for clarification from OP because the best answer depends on it.

I understand all of that and that is exactly the point I try to bring to attention Mike400, and what most others doesn't seem to realize and only answer based on the fast criteria. Wiping disks is very slow simply because a lot of data must be written to the disk.

#Best permanent eraser windows free#

Then use the free sdelete tool from to either zero fill unused space on the disk or do a DoD wipe on unused disk space. You can do the Fast via the rd /s/q command. You could also want the hardcore permanent way that would also erase the in-between bits magnetic field in hard drives that could be retrieved by special agencies to recover deleted data. Most solutions here only address the 'Fast' criteria by deleting the associated FAT entry, but not the file content itself. You gave 2 criteria: Fast and Permanently. Good job by the person who put it together though. I followed this script guide before, it was handy at the time but I rarely use it now.

#Best permanent eraser windows windows#

its a windows command line tool.Īlso, I am not sure of the safety of using this on a SSD. The only program I know that will do a decent job (warning i have only tested recovery myself once with this but you can research more if you wish) of deleting and overwriting without reformatting is secure delete or sdelete.

I already know you do not wish to reformat your hdd, so since that is my advice I will try to offer an alternative. If that is the case, I would suggest moving all needed files to external storage and then using dban or similar to overwrite the disk a few times, I think default settings are DoD compliant, but you could overwrite more times if you wish. If you need to make it non-recoverable, many of the solutions listed above are not sufficient. More importantly, you should focus on what your idea of permanently deleting something means. Pick a way, do it right before you go to bed, wake up and it will be done.

I am against using speed as a deciding factor though as all of them will take time when deleting that amount of stuff. Is speed really a concern? I would say robocopy might be the fastest way.