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.

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

#75 now seems to be #79.

#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!

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.

@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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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.

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

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?

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?

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.

#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 ...

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.

#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.

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.

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

#32 Too big? Get a bigger hard drive.

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

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?

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

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!

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

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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 :)

Should I use this before buying a new computer?

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.

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

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

Glad I didn't get Vista 64bit.

#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?

@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....

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

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. :)

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

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

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.

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.

to larry #33 and others
The website says it'll work on Vista 64bit.... and it's ok on my vista premium 64bit running on an HPPavillion. Wasn't quite straightforward. Threw up a 'may not have installed correctly do you want to do it with the correct parameters' dialogue. To which I said YES. It ran the start up squence again and then worked thro the install. Had to do an restart and then there was no icon I could find anywhere- but it was in the Start button. So I say give it a Go!

I think #18 has just shown exactly the reason why most people do not use Linux. It plain and simply is not logical to use in the way Microsoft and Apple operating systems are. What is easier, following simple instructions to wipe a disc or entering something like "dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/" and hoping you get the correct disc ?
As for todays offering I was going to pass until I found out that it creates a boot disc which I find I use many many more times that wiping a drive in situ. Great program.
PS. I am not knocking Linux users if they are happy using command prompts but it is a very long winded way of learning to use an operating system. And yes I have tried Linux, I ran a system with Ubuntu on it for nearly a year, did like it but never fully understood it.

What a great tool I have wanted for a long time, yet how to use on multiple systems without it being on a CD, that can only be installed on one machine for free? And how can you use this until having a need for a computer disaster in order to use it? I do not understand how #16 can just have a need to wipe at an instant of this software being made available. What is just a "free space wipe"? A certain disk? A certain drive wipe, but not others? How could you trust it to erase partial data, and not all by accident? There's some things I'm not understanding here. Of course the forbiddable will happen and erase all the free software installed up to now from GAOTD...