Chances are that online banking information, payroll data, social security numbers, credit card numbers, confidential e-mails, personal photos still exist on your hard disk drive - even if you’ve emptied those files from the Recycle Bin. Do you have a lot of sensitive files that you don’t want to get into the wrong hands? Drive Erase Pro (£29.99) is a low-cost utility which offers a secure way to erase sensitive data – permanently!

Ideal when it comes to selling or donating your computers without having to worry about confidential data falling into the wrong hands, Drive Erase Pro even comes with Internet privacy controls. And unlike other solutions, Drive Erase Pro gives you the option of either deleting all of the data on your hard disk drive or just shredding selected files - easily, securely and permanently.

The software allows you to erase all of the data on your hard disk drive or just the files and folders you select, and can also be used to restore a system after a virus or spyware damage. With Drive Erase Pro you can erase drive partitions, unused space or whole drives, destroy data using methods that meet or exceed US Department of Defense security standards, customise erase methods to improve upon national standards (including applying several different methods when wiping a disk), and format partitions or delete them after erasing. There’s even a built-in Disk Viewer utility to confirm that all data has been deleted.

When you delete a file from your disk, Windows deletes the reference to that file from its File Allocation Table (FAT), but the actual data remains on your hard disk in the same sectors in which it previously existed. Data is stored on a hard disk drive as a sequence of 1s and 0s (ones and zeros) represented by differently magnetised parts of a disk. Information removed from a hard disk drive by non-secure means (for example, by simply deleting the file) can easily be recovered (for example, by file recovery software such as Nova’s File Restore Deluxe). By using specialised equipment, someone may be able to recover even repeatedly overwritten information.

To prevent data retrieval, the existing data must be destroyed. You permanently destroy data by writing over it - usually with some pattern (such as all zeroes, 00000, or all ones, 11111). With Drive Erase Pro you can delete all of the data on your hard drive. It does this by adhering to the highest standards which define various patterns and the number of times a disk (or partition) is overwritten. Besides US national standards, Drive Erase Pro supports algorithms proposed by well-known and authoritative specialists in the field of information security, including Peter Gutmann algorithm and Bruce Schneier algorithms. In fact, Drive Erase Pro has eight different methods for destroying data.

Each method completely overwrites the data on your disks. You can use any method on any partition, unallocated space or drive and be ensured that your data is destroyed. Be aware that the more write passes performed, the longer it will take completely erase the disk; however, the data will be more thoroughly destroyed. The Fast method, as its name indicates, is the quickest method. It performs a single pass on the selected partition or drive and zeroes out all sectors. By contrast, the Gutmann method uses 35 passes to securely erase date. While this method is very secure, it is also the method that takes the longest time.

The time it takes to erase a drive is determined by the speed of the drive, its size, how it’s connected to the computer and which algorithm you select to erase the disk. It will take less time to erase a newer drive with faster write speeds than older, slower drives. For example, a 7200rpm 120GB external hard disk with a FireWire connection takes almost 2 hours to erase using the Fast algorithm. It will take longer to erase a slower or larger drive.

Of course, if you have a smaller drive (for example, a 20GB drive), it will take considerably less time to erase. Also, if you use an algorithm that does more than one write pass, that will increase the erase time. For example the DoD method (three writes and a verify) is quicker than either the Schneier method (seven writes) or the Peter Gutmann method (35 writes).

Erasing an entire mounted hard disk drive is just as easy thanks to the Data Destruction wizard which leads you step-by-step through the process. Before starting this procedure, be sure that you’ve archived any critical data and that you have installation discs for any software that you’ll want to re-install including the operating system discs or your computer’s boot discs. And after wiping a drive or partition, it is unusable until you initialise and format it, so you really should make sure you know what you’re doing.

The package also includes a boot CD-ROM for 100 per cent hard disk erasing and allows you to choose from seven data destruction options. The software is compatible with all Windows drives, regardless of size and interface, allows you to wipe multiple PCs as many times as you like, and has a Disk Viewer utility which shows proof that data has been deleted.

As an added bonus, every copy of Drive Erase Pro also ships with SurfSecret Privacy Protector, which securely erases Internet surfing tracks to protect your privacy from prying eyes. SurfSecret Privacy Protector automatically cleans Instant Message tracks, peer-to-peer history, Goggle ‘last-searched’ toolbar data, and more - 30 applications in all. SurfSecret Privacy Protector even features a Stealth Mode to ensure that no will know the software is running.

Privacy Protector (separate installation) works in the background quietly erasing every Internet-related track made - whether you use Internet Explorer, Netscape, America Online (AOL), Firefox or Opera - and data from Windows and other applications. When the next person sits down to use your computer, your surfing history will be invisible to them. By constantly destroying cookies, cache files and other data that keep track of your actions, Privacy Protector makes it difficult for companies to profile or track your actions on the Web. Nobody will know where you have been surfing - not a family member, friend, or even the technician at the local computer shop!

Additionally, with Privacy Protector you can use the customisable Cookie Saver feature to keep the cookies you want and discard the ones you don’t, wipe away Instant Message data, clean information from third-party applications and Windows, clear the last-searched data from your Google toolbar, and set Privacy Protector to run at a specified interval. Very easy to use, Drive Erase Pro gives you plenty of powerful options to delete your data. The software probably has more features than you need, but the File Shredder and Privacy Protector utilities in particular are extremely useful. [8]

[Best Utility Pricing UK]
[Best Utility Pricing US]

Christian Harris, 27.04.06