Disk Wipe FAQ

Can Disk Wipe be used on USB memory stick and other media (SD cards, mini and micro SD etc)

Sure it can. Due to the way it works it is actually advisable to use it on any kind of removable media, in addition to regular hard disk drives.

Does Disk Wipe work on partitions?

Disk Wipe ONLY works on partitions. If you want to wipe a disk which is partitioned into several partitions you have to wipe each partition separately. Alternatively, merge the partitions and format a single partition.

Is permanent disk wiping really, really permanent?

To the author's best knowledge, a comprehensive study that would show how much of a data from a wiped disk can be retrieved hasn't been conducted yet, but it is believed that it is pretty insignificant, way bellow 0.1%, and in most cases, nothing. Check this link for an interesting challenge offered to a data recovery companies - it shows not only that the wiped data can not been recovered but it also shows that multiple overwriting passes may not be really needed.

I can't wipe the C partition, why?

You cannot wipe a C partition because it is a partition where Windows operating system is installed on. So, you can not wipe a partition which you currently use to to log in into Windows and run Disk Wipe from. You should access this partition from an operating system which is installed on another partition, disk drive or computer.

What DoD 5220-22.M and others mean?

Those are methods of data wiping. For instance DoD 5220 is a US Department of Defense secure data deletion recommendation. It is a three pass method, which means data is overwritten three times, first pass all 1's, second pass all 0's and third time it overwrites data with random 1's and 0's. Similarly, the Guttman method specifies overwriting the data for 35 times until completion. There aren't great differences in reliability of process between multiple pass methods so users should chose the fast one unless for some reason they want to employ as many passes as possible, and have enough time to wait for operation to complete since data wipe in multiple passes on modern large disks can be very slow.

Does Disk Wipe contain adware (unwanted advertising or banners), spyware or any other malware.

No. Disk Wipe is free and clean and it will remain so. If you use it and want to say thanks please place a link on your website or blog describing it in a few words so it can reach more users, that is all I ask and I would be grateful if you do so.

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You can download free Disk Wipe here.