Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tools

Many persons are unaware of the fact that when they delete things from their computer, it is not really completely destroyed. It's just marked as deleted, but it can be accessed using specialized software, which are data recovery tools. However, to securely wipe/delete these files, you will need some specialized software, which overwrite the data with selective patterns or random data. This makes it virtually impossible to recover the lost information and you can be assured that your sensitive information will never fall in the wrong hands.

Active@ Kill Disk Free - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool



This is a DOS program which wipes your drives free of data by writing zeros to the disk.

After Work - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool



Free Windows software, which erases your data securely and also dubs as a tool to delete internet history, cookies and stuffs from your web browser.

Autoclave - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

This software, which is open source, needs to create a bootable floppy disk when you start the setup. you run it from the bootable disk in DOS mode and you wipe your data from there. Note: this software is no longer supported.

Darik's Boot and Nuke - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

This is a self-contained floppy image or CD-ROM ISO image which you can download if you want to wipe your entire hard disk, along with its partitions, leaving nothing on them. This software, as mentioned earlier comes either on floppy or CD-ROM, and has on Operating System to make it run, which is Linux.

Eraser - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

This is also a freeware wiping software, which associates itself with the Windows shell and also has the option of scheduled wiping of unused space like the browser's cache. Works under Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista. Open Source.

HandyBits File Shredder - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

Freeware, for non-commercial use with shell integration and things like customized recycle bin to send your files to. Can overwrite your files up to 15 times to ensure maximum security.

No File Recovery - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

Yet another wiping software for Windows.

Secure Delete - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

This software wipes data for you, but unfortunately does not match military criteria and is open source.

SuperShredder - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

Very powerful software to wipe data securely from your computer, while leaving no traces. Supports drag-and-drop and allows send-to option on right-click on file.

SDelete - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

A command-line utility, this piece of software employs military techniques to wipe data clean. This software is open source and works under all windows versions. Additionally, it can wipe data off NTFS compressed and encrypted file systems.

OverWrite - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

This one runs on Unix and does the regular wiping routine and is released under the GNU GPL license.

Wipe - Free Secure/Destructive File and Disk Deletion/Wiping/Shredding Tool

Wipe runs on Linux and does the same wiping task as the other software and is open source.

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