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Disk Wiper 8.5 Special Edition (English Version) Giveaway
$29.95
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Disk Wiper 8.5 Special Edition (English Version)

Paragon Disk Wiper can completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space.
$29.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 459 86 comments

Disk Wiper 8.5 Special Edition (English Version) was available as a giveaway on August 6, 2009!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$36.00
free today
Download music from 1000+ sites anytime and anywhere!

Your sensitive data is too easily recovered if you rely on the standard delete function or formatting your hard disk. Make sure that no-one can recover your data you thought was deleted! Erase your data held on your hard disk securely with Paragon Disk Wiper Personal.
Paragon Disk Wiper can completely erase a whole hard disk, a separate partition or just clean free space.

Key Features and Benefits:

  • Comprehensive wiping: Wipe exactly what you need - hard disks/separate partitions (primary, extended, logical)
  • New powerful Paragon`s algorithm: Irreversibly destroy all on-disk data providing maximum level of security
  • Efficient operation: Minimal effect on the system performance
  • User friendly interface
  • Basic partitioning operations: Optimize the management of your hard disks

Detailed Product information is available at Disk Wiper 8.5 website.

Technical Support:
During the Giveaway period Paragon Software provides technical support at http://twitter.com/paragonsoftware. Please, post your questions if you have any troubles while downloading, registering and using the software. Paragon Software’s support team will reply you as soon as possible.

System Requirements:

Windows Vista, 95/98/ME/, NT, 2000, XP; Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, Intel Pentium CPU or its equivalent; 300 MHz processor clock speed; 64 MB of RAM; 40 MB HD space; SVGA video adapter and monitor

Publisher:

Paragon Software

Homepage:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/dw-personal/

File Size:

64.7 MB

Price:

$29.95

Comments on Disk Wiper 8.5 Special Edition (English Version)

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#86

Works but takes forever! I backed up my picture files that Picasso takes a few minutes to do. It took this application 3 hours. Not sure why but a ridiculous long time.

Reply   |   Comment by cpoldedana  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#85

to #84, your comment will be checked and therefor move a couple of # down. Wait until it is aproved before using the # ;)

Reply   |   Comment by Chaotic  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#84

#75 now seems to be #79.

Reply   |   Comment by Dan  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#83

#75
If you place your laptop near an MRI you run the likely risk of wiping all the chips in the laptop. (CMOS, Keyboard, BIOS, etc.)

Your laptop would then be a paperweight.

If you are going to try this, remove the hard drive and just bring the hard drive near the MRI . . . providing you are willing to accept the risk of the drive becoming a deadly projectile that might kill or damage the MRI or personnel. Software seems so much easier and safer!

Reply   |   Comment by Dan  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#82

I still don't appreciate it when software requires you to submit your email address to a barrage of advertising, in order to install and register the software.

If I want a company's advertising, I will choose to sign up for their email list.

Reply   |   Comment by Spiritwolf  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#81

@68: I am Dutch, live in the Netherlands and had no problem at all getting the code. If you read this too late: check the German site.

Reply   |   Comment by gergn  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#80

I haven't actually executed the program yet, but a few points:

1) It would be nice if there was a Windows Explorer Shell context menu
option to shred individual files (instead of merely deleting).
Not a big deal, but just a wish list item.

2) The program estimates total execution time based on drive size.
For example, I have a 500gb drive with XP installed. Total used
space is about 40gb. I selected the 'wipe free space' option and
it estimated that the process would take over 11 hours to complete.
Just be aware that secure disk wiping is a very lengthy process.

3) There are two wipe options: entire drive and free space only. Be
darn sure you select the appropriate one. There are no "are you
sure" confirmations other than the standard Paragon "Apply". I
accidently selected 'entire drive' and looked at the projected
results/time dialog which said my drive would no longer be
formatted. Good thing I caught that.

Reply   |   Comment by Putthead  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#79

can i just take my laptop near my MRI gantry (not too close mind you) and wipe everything that way?

Reply   |   Comment by goathead  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#78

Paragon: Commercial product, Tested by few, obscure.
DBAN: Free Open source product, Tested by many, PROVEN.

Security through obscurity is not security. End of story.

Reply   |   Comment by Mario P.  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#77

Error message that this does not work on Vista Home Premium 64 bit. Deleted.

Reply   |   Comment by moonseal  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#76

HOW TO INSTALL ON WIN7:

1) Download
2) Run unrar
3) Run Setup.exe
4) Now the setup will extract some files and run a wizard to install "Disk Wiper 8.5"
5) Don't close anything, but goto this folder: "C:\Users\Nicolai\AppData\Local\Temp\RarSFX0\windows\english\dw85"
6) Now run the program: "setup.exe" (don't close the old wizard)
7) Now you will get a box saying "This program can't be installed on this OS"
8) Close the new wizard and wait in ~5 sec
9) Now there will come a popup saying something about "This program might now be installed correct"
10) Click the "Install this program using the recommended settings"
11) Now the program will be installed and you should not get a "This program can't be installed on this OS"-box
Enjoy!

Reply   |   Comment by HNicolai  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#75

I go to install and it runs the key wrapper only to say it cannont connect to the internet. I tried several times and have a working internet connection. Is there anyway to get it working? I tried click the repair option on the connection and dosent help.

Laptop - COmpaq Evo N800c
OS - Windows XP Pro 32-bit
RAM - 512MB
HDD - 160GB 5400RPM Seagate Momentus

Reply   |   Comment by Christian Davis  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#74

Response to #67

in your response to me on the time it takes, erasing a 500GB HD with 3 passes takes almost a full day, or more, I have done it. Also they state there are several methods. If you look at their chart it states the fastest takes "seconds" and is the most secure method - Nist 800-88 on the "disk Dive Secure Erase" PDF on page 2 there is a chart that shows this. It claims to erase the whole drive in seconds by changing the drive key. This is the same no matter how big your HD is. And therefore would be more than ideal for large drives ( or any size due to speed and reported erasure )

Also in your response to 56, also me: If you have anything on your PC that has a DOB, SSN, names and addresses, credit card numbers, then you have data worth protecting.

Pickpickets are dead, a kid with a laptop can ruin your life in ways you wouldn't believe in a matter of minutes.

I am not saying to be paranoid. there is always a better way. My laptop has full disk encryption and is useless without the password (or a fresh install and none of MY data). My home PC keeps all of my personal files with anything of importance in a truecrypt container. Its actually very easy to do

I haven't sold a drive in years. I have a 20 ton shop press that takes care of them for me. 5 year old drives aren't worth anything

Reply   |   Comment by eric  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#73

Installed fine on my Vista 64 HP Pavilion, also. Also installed fine on Win7 RC partition, took 4 hours to wipe free space of about 150 GB.

Reply   |   Comment by Paul  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#72

Paragon is great, I just bought the full Disk manager suite 2009 ;)

Reply   |   Comment by Chaotic  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#71

Paragon obviously doesn't like Dutch people - tried several times but I cannot register - they don't accept my country, the Netherlands ;o((
They probably think we do not speak English??? Anyone else got this problem?

Reply   |   Comment by toja  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#70

#5: "Has anyone actually validated these guys claim that a disk format is recoverable? "

Absolutely...
Over the years I've proven to myself I'm impatient & maybe have a touch of dyslexia more than a few times. :-(

I've always been able to get at least some of the files back, & often all of them. ;-)

* * *

#34: "What is just a “free space wipe”?"

If you have a 30 MB file, & you delete it [from the table of contents], then Windows overwrites part of that storage space with a 5 MB file, there's still 25 MB of data that's still there. Erasing free space generally gets rid of that 25 MB & anything else left over by overwriting all storage space not belonging to anything in the table of contents. Some software gos further... Windows organizes hard drive space into clusters, & the last part of a file only takes up part of a cluster -- it's possible to erase that unused portion.

* * *

#54: [Referring to # 27 link: Center for Magnetic Recording Research Secure Erase Utility]
"This would be like changing the header key on an encrypted system. It alters the algorithm and therefor changes what will be read as a 0/1.It sounds to simple..."

From the posted Readme file: "*NOTE: For laptop users, please make sure that there is sufficient battery life to run and complete the secure erase procedure. Secure erase may take as long as two hours for larger capacity drives."

And that's on a laptop with a much smaller drive than most current PCs with 500 GB to a TB or two.

* * *

#56: "Download truecrypt (free, and everyone SHOULD already use it)do a whole disk encryption, then delete the header key…DONE"

That'll work, but OTOH I guess I'm too old [read bland], to have anything on my drives I'd care about anyone else reading. ;-)

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+16)
#69

Paragon is getting out of hand. It keeps churning out variations of its products but no one outside Paragon really knows what the marketing people are trying to achieve our of doing this.

Now, there are so many different variations of the same thing, some on promo, some with limited features, and some no one really knows.

So, what gives, Paragon?

Reply   |   Comment by not spam  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#68

It is usefull only if you have secrets.If you are normal people i don't know why to use it.Partitions:D,E...you delete simple and C-format when you install again s.o.

Reply   |   Comment by Ignat Titus  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-12)
#67

If you want to wipe an entire drive, you can't be using it at the time, so if you want to erase the system drive (with Windows) you need to boot off of something else. You can plug the drive into another PC, or boot from a CD/DVD or USB device. Writing to the hard drives is usually faster in a Windows environment. Erasing a 2nd drive or partition isn't any different that erasing a file or free space, & can be done in Windows. Since you don't have moving parts with memory devices, you don't have the same need for multiple passes.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#66

The last item in the Disk Wiper feature list up top is basic partitioning operations, setting it apart from a lot of such data erasers. Think it's worth a look based on that & the Paragon name -- so far the name's been worth it with their other products.

Much simplified, a hard drive is sort of a mix between a record player & a tape recorder. A tape recorder magnetizes a pattern on tape that's readable by the payback head(s). A hard drive works much the same way, only in a circular pattern like a record player.

On a hard drive you record binary data -- each smallest segment is either on or off, like millions & millions of microscopic toggle switches. To keep track of it all, there's a master table of contents, so your PC knows for any given file, what parts of the hard drive to read. Deleting a file removes it from that table of contents, but leaves all those *switches* set just like they were. Un-deleting a file puts that file's entries back in the table of contents. Un-deleting works until all or some of a file's switches have been reset -- erasing a file in it's simplest form means no more than turning every switch to off.

Now there are no actual toggle switches -- that's just a way to visualize it -- and the heads that do the writing float on a very, very thin layer of air [that BTW is why you shouldn't jar a hard drive while it's on -- At All!]. These heads can move a little bit right or left, so when you record (write) a file to disk, the actual data won't be *exactly* in the same path twice. If you try to over-write a file, just like re-using a recording tape like VHS, some of the old stuff gets left behind. On a hard drive it won't show up as noise, like on a VCR, but it *might* be possible for someone to go back & find enough data left behind to re-construct the file you thought you got rid of.

Erasing programs overwrite existing data, but they do it several times, & since each time the drive's heads may wobble a bit right or left, the more times you overwrite the same area, the greater the odds you actually wiped everything clean. The only way to make absolutely sure data is destroyed is to destroy whatever it was stored on, so things like government secrets on paper & tapes get burned, while drives get smashed. Doesn't work though when/if you have to send in your laptop or PC, or you sell it or give it away, so erasing programs are 2nd best. And they help when you're paranoid about files you've deleted & don't want *anyone* to know you had them in the 1st place -- in fact that's probably where they're used most often.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#65

#61 I disagree : Data on reformatted disks can only be recovered after a quick format. The case of a full format is much harder, up to impossible, to recover, except for a sophisticated Intelligence agency.
Such an agency can "peel-back" successive layers of magnetism on the disk to reconstitute past data. This is why a good disk cleaner will over-write the wiped data not once but several times.
But this is not really a problem that concerns non-commercial home-users.
Unless your name is James Bond, of course ...

Reply   |   Comment by Harrym  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#64

Thanks a lot GAOTD! I was thinking about the wiping software... but didn't want to spend money for it. So, it's just an excellent option for me.

Reply   |   Comment by NTBower  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#63

#40/42 Yes, BIOS data is on the motherboard
and the operating system and your personal data
is stored on the hard drive.

Deleting or using the recycle bin
and to a degree reformatting the hard drive
and reloading the operating system
leaves data recoverable with the help
of freely available software.

In order to prevent recovery you must overwrite your data
multiple passes (the more - the better, within reason)
using a program such as the one offered here.

Some allow you to permanently delete a single file or folder
from within the operating system, ( I like Eraser),
but to zap an entire hard drive for reasons such as ownership transfer, you boot to a CD to overwrite it many times (I like DBAN)
which,to answer your other question,will allow the hard drive to be
reused either in the same or another computer without fear
of data recovery if overwritten adequately which today's offering
from a highly reputable company most probably does very well,
although my experience is limited to the 2 free programs mentioned.

Note: as with hard drives- pictures(data) on camera cards are also recoverable if simply deleted until the space they occupy is actually overwritten at least by new pictures and although a good wiper is way more than adequate for most people, many claim the only way to make data absolutely unrecoverable is to remove the disks from inside hard drives and melt them with a cutting torch.

Reply   |   Comment by Rick  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#62

Installs and works great on XP Professional 64bit. My suggestion to Vista users is to ditch Vista and install a 64bit operating system that works like XP or Linux.

Reply   |   Comment by domcass  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#61

#5 Yes, data on reformatted disks can be recovered.

#32 Too big? Get a bigger hard drive.

Reply   |   Comment by nomesayin  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#60

Nevermind It's http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/dw85se.html

Reply   |   Comment by Herl  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#59

Is this the full program? It doesn't appear to be as the info in the help file shows a large assortment of wiping algorithms but I can only choose the paragon algorithm from within the program as it is the only one available. This is disapointing, has anybody else found the same?

Reply   |   Comment by setcho  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#58

What does "Special Edition" mean? does this version have all features of Disk Wiper 8.5 Personal?

Reply   |   Comment by Taz  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#57

What's the difference between today's giveaway: "Disk Wiper 8.5 Special Edition" and "Disk Wiper 8.5 Personal?"

What's 'Special' about it?
It shows the same price as the Personal Version and links to the Personal Version's page, but its called Special Edition!

Reply   |   Comment by Aaron  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#56

Download truecrypt (free, and everyone SHOULD already use it)do a whole disk encryption, then delete the header key...DONE

Reply   |   Comment by eric  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#55

To 36 (revcooling) and other Vista 64 users:

Good luck using software that may or may not have installed properly that is specifically designed to erase data in a manner which makes its recovery impossible!

Reply   |   Comment by captainmidnight  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#54

to #27

I researched this option and was unable to find any good info other than on the site. It apears to state that it changes the hardware key on the drive.

This would be like changing the header key on an encrypted system. It alters the algorithm and therefor changes what will be read as a 0/1.

It sounds to simple, this is the only place I have read of this and it will render the drive data free in less than a min. Yet there are dozens of apps that do the same thing in MANY hours. Like I said it seems to good to be true, although I would like to know more about it.

Reply   |   Comment by eric  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#53

To Duh! #31:
Try TestDisk. Its a free recovery utility and, in my experience, is excellent for recovering crashed/unbootable partitions on drives. The easiest way to get and use it is to download the Ultimate Boot CD for windows, where it is included in the package as one of many utilities.

http://www.ubcd4win.com

Reply   |   Comment by Seascoot  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#52

Yes, #42. Bios is on the motherboard, and the operating system is on the HD. If you wipe the HD the OS is gone.

Reply   |   Comment by Adjay  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#51

Everyday when I read the comments on here, I'm happy I decided to wait on Vista and 64 bit. My XP 32 bit computer runs anything and everything without complaint.

Reply   |   Comment by Adjay  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#50

This looks like a terrific giveaway! In response to one person's question (#5), yes, a formatted disk is recoverable. I have done it personally. I have never tried to recover from a dOd wiped hard drive. It might not be possible unless, of course, you work for the dOd or a forensic recovery unit of some sort. I don't know for sure about that. It is true that many places don't want to do this kind of work. Probably because it is time consuming.

There is a lot of value to this giveaway! I asked a major electronics retailer what it would cost to wipe a hard drive so I could sell it and was told if I brought it in to the store $299.99. If they came to my home $399.99. A hammer or drill would be a better option if you didn't have good software like this! $29.95 is very reasonable. Thanks much :)

Reply   |   Comment by Anony Mouse  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#49

Should I use this before buying a new computer?

Reply   |   Comment by PCexpert  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-14)
#48

To 40 Hrad:

Application can erase the whole hard disk (all the data), the whole partition (all data stored on selected partition) or only partition's free space (erases data, which was deleted from disk and from recycle bin, but still can be accessed by special utilities). Application doesn't make any changes to BIOS.

It can be run from Windows or from Wipe Disk. In both cases all variants of wiping are possible.

Reply   |   Comment by True  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#47

To 39:
Under Vista x64 you can burn Wipe Disk, boot from it and perform required operations under Wipe Disk environment

Reply   |   Comment by True  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#46

For for a great free defragging utility, try Iobit. There are several out there, but this one works on my 32 and 64 bit OS's

http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html?Str=download

Reply   |   Comment by capt.kurk  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-22)
#45

Glad I didn't get Vista 64bit.

Reply   |   Comment by Dale  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-14)
#44

#18, what word or phrase did you leave out in your sentence "type into the command line something like this:
dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/

where means the device name under linux of the
hard disk to be wiped."? Where WHAT means?

Reply   |   Comment by Texasboy  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#43

@16:
Check and make sure that you followed all the instructions correctly.
The way that you referred to the boot and program start process indicates that you may not understand how the app is supposed to work.
Also, why are you assuming that Paragon will spam you?
In the future, just use a temp. email address if you're really concerned about possible spam....
BTW, the software that Paragon has given away here is some of the best that I've seen on this site.
Let's encourage them to keep offering their stuff here....

Reply   |   Comment by Bruce  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+15)
#42

Sorry for the spelling errors on my last post:-) No spell correction and rushed questions.

Another question I have is if I create a "Wipe Disk" it will erase the hard disk and then that disk may be used in another computer, right?
Oh yes, I figure the bios is on the mobo, not the hard disk, silly me!

But the operating system is on the hard disk?
NooB am I!
Thanks, Hrad

Reply   |   Comment by Hrad  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#41

my parents just got a new laptop and need to wipe the old ones hdd. i was going to dl 'eraser' but im thinking that this will be more thorough. this program does give the option of creating a cd? that would certainly be easier than installing and running on their p.o.s. laptop. i am very excited to try this out. thanks g.o.t.d. :)

Reply   |   Comment by goathead  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-10)
#40

Hi all! I need help with understanding this...
This Program overwrites and erases all files except the bios and operating system??

OR it operates from the bios and wipes EVERYTHING from the disk EXCEPT the bios leaving a clean disk ready for a clean reinstalltion of Windows?

I mean how does the program work if the operating system (eg Windows xp home)is being overwritten?

Appreciate any advice with these questios before I istall this program...

Thanks Hrad

Reply   |   Comment by Hrad  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#39

This download will not install on Vista 64 it says it does not work under this OS!

Reply   |   Comment by Mark  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-13)
#38

To 27:
It works under Windows x64 for unlocked volumes (i.e. for volumes which are not used by OS or by running applications). To perform wipe to locked volume (for example to volume where OS is installed) you should burn Wipe Disk and boot from it.

Reply   |   Comment by True  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#37

G'day to all.
Thanks once again to Paragon for offering a great piece of software at no cost. I understand that these 'Special Editions' are remade editions for purposes such as this, and fully support and understand that. What would be great to offer next time, if possible, is your disk defragmentation utility. I currently use the one inbuilt into Paragon Partition Manager and it is brilliant, but I am sure that a program solely for defragging would serve a much better purpose, and do a much better job.

Reply   |   Comment by MrMac  –  14 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-9)
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