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Wipe Out Sensitive Data

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Reviews March 2009 • Vol.20 Issue 3 Page(s) 27 in print issue	Add To My Personal Library
Wipe Out Sensitive Data DriveScrubber

Notable Features: The clean, straightforward interface makes it simple to delete lingering personal data.

$29.95
iolo
(323) 257-8888
www.iolo.com

Deleting a file by conventional means does not necessarily get the job done. Using the Recycle Bin opens up free space on your drive, but that free space is actually full of old file fragments. Unless the same spot on the disk happens to have been overwritten by a new file, the former files remain accessible to various file recovery programs. If you’re selling, donating, or junking an old computer or drive, that’s an identity theft hazard.

DriveScrubber 3 promises to truly erase drives by writing over them again and again with binary gibberish. The program features three main tools in a clean, simple interface. First, you can scrub clean an entire drive other than your system drive. This is the best choice to erase every bit of data from an external hard drive, network drive, or additional internal drive. Second, you can wipe all of the free space on a drive to ensure that it truly is blank. Third, you can create a boot disk with a version of DriveScrubber installed that can be used to erase your main system drive.

DriveScrubber 3 claims to meet Department of Defense standards for overwriting data so completely that it cannot be read even with an electron microscope. We didn’t have an electron microscope on hand to test that out. However, the program seems to foil typical “undelete” applications, at least, and its straightforward operation will have you erasing data permanently in just a few minutes.

by Anne Steyer Phelps

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