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1-abc.net File Washer 7.00 Giveaway
$19.99
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — 1-abc.net File Washer 7.00

Erase files completely with 1-abc.net File Washer 7 so that they can never be recovered again.
$19.99 EXPIRED
User rating: 145 29 comments

1-abc.net File Washer 7.00 was available as a giveaway on March 31, 2015!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$9.95 / month
free today
Lightning-fast video & audio conversion tool.

File Washer helps users to erase files completely so that they can never be recovered again. You can switch between 11 different deleting methods, and all of them overwrite your old file before removing so the only thing that could ever be recovered will be senseless data. One of these deleting procedures is the famous “Gutman Method”, that probably is one of the best ways to erase data by overwriting it 35 times.

Please note: 5 best improvement ideas will be rewarded with a license for 1-abc.net Security Box. Use Idea Informer widget to submit your feedback and do not forget to fill in your name and e-mail – otherwise the Developer will not be able to contact you in case you are the one to win!

System Requirements:

Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8; CPU: 300 MHz; RAM: 32MB; disk space: 10MB

Publisher:

1-abc.net

Homepage:

http://1-abc.net/0017/

File Size:

7.35 MB

Price:

$19.99

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Comments on 1-abc.net File Washer 7.00

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#12

DOD wiping includes a pass of 0's, a pass of 1's, followed by a pass of random data. This precludes any type of file recovery. Windows used to have a pgm that did this from the command line.

Reply   |   Comment by Jim K  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#11

Disassemble the HDD. Place each platter on asphalt, step on it (rubber soles work best)and grind the platter back and forth until the surface is completely destroyed. Turn it over and do the same thing to the other side. Do this for all platters in the HDD

Reply   |   Comment by Joe  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#10

Sheesh.
How should I go about explaining this so you all can understand it.

Have you ever looked at a old film roll? probably not, but there you have the frame you can view on the screen, but if you look at the frames on the film roll itself, you will find that there's more information there. The film actually extends all the way to the holes that is being used to transport the film.
This is pretty much the case when it comes to writing data as well. When you write to a harddrive, you write a stream of data to the sectors. just outside the main stream, there will be remnants which forensic programs can pick up and restore the data from. To securely overwrite data, the program will have to overwrite and underwrite the file and or directory structure as well as the data itself.
I am not a bit surprised that for video, a harddrive whith a round of 45 kaliber bullets through it can be restored sufficiently to get a conviction (keep in mind that the disk spins 7200 rounds pr minute so even 6 bullets does not cause sufficient damage to the datastream that makes up the video)

With this being said, I wish to credit GOTD for making such a utility available for free for those who feel in need for it.

Keep up the good work!

Reply   |   Comment by Egil  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#9

Improvements for the software.

Drag and drop files and folders.
Clean unused space.
Estimated time to complete based on the file/folder size and the cleaning method.
I used the Idea Informer widget and 1-abc.net has not offerised them.
Feedback from 1-abc.net to the commentators is a good way to to get interaction with possible future clients.
I enjoy reading the feedback, therefore i would of thought the suppliers would interact.


For education and paranoya.
Data can be recovered, it also costs alot of money to do proper disk forenics if someone is trying to hide their data.
This leads on to Electron microscopes, digital forensics and HEX editors.
http://etutorials.org/Misc/computer+book/Part+5+Protecting+Your+Computer/Chapter+19+Computer+Forensics+Recovering+and+Deleting+Data/COMPUTER+FORENSICS+TOOLS/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_recovery_software
Encase from Guidance Software- digital investigative solutions

It is interesting to run some of the programs to see what files you have on your machines that you deleted 5 years ago.

Reply   |   Comment by vietnamrum  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#8

Any program that can overwrite any file with 0 or 1 is as good as any other program on the market.
What is bothering me, is the overwrite after overwrite this program does, if one overwrite did not do the job, it tells me, it is not designed to securely erase the file, but does it without following the file that is erasing and is trying by its own omission to erase not found sectors on the disk for the file that is trying to eliminate.
Poor design, forces the developer to erase files with multiple passes and do a ware and tare on your SSD drive.

Reply   |   Comment by Ammy  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)

The heads in a conventional hard drive float above the platter(s) on a very, Very thin cushion of air. There's a Very tiny amount of side to side play. **If** a head wrote data while all the way over to the right, then overwrote that data while all the way to the left, in theory you might be able to read that original data. One reason for multiple passes is that the law of averages suggests that, using this example, at least one of the overwriting passes would be all the way to the right as well. I think obviously this was more a concern with early hard drives with data not nearly as concentrated as on something current, since tolerances would not have had to have been as tight.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#7

What are people erasing that is so important that overwriting it 35 times is not good enough? If you sell a machine that has such top secret files take the HD and put a 1/2" hole through the drive with a hammer drill. Problem solved. No recovery possible. If it is just your list of top kitten names for the next batch,..... well,....no one really cares.

Reply   |   Comment by LancasterPA  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)

@John Almost the most unlikely story in computing i've every heard. You fill up the hole through the (bend) platters with what?

Reply   |   Comment by Very unlikely  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)

@ Very unlikely

Unfortunately it is truth.
Files on a broken CD were recovered; parts of it.
It will cost a lot of time to recover.

Maybe the best way to be safe is to throw the HD or whatever in a pot of liquid steel like:
http://www.refdag.nl/polopoly_fs/het_afgieten_van_de_slak_drijvend_op_32_ton_vloeibaar_staal_1_21167!image/499840613.jpg
or in a volcano

Reply   |   Comment by Ootje  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)

Actually this sounds quite plausible. Sure there will be a .45 caliber hole in each of the platters. But what if the data in question is somewhere else on the platters? I suspect there are machines out there specially made to reassemble platter pieces into readable platters.

If I really wanted to destroy the data on a drive:

1) Take off drive covers, etc. until bare platters are exposed.
2) Take 10-15 minutes turning platters cherry red with a propane torch (stay upwind, outdoors).
3) Cool and disassemble the drive on a flat hard surface (asphalt playground comes to mind).
4) Take another 10-15 minutes with a hand sledge hammer turning the drive into dust.
5) Sweep up all remains and dispose of equally in 10 very separate garbage cans.

I believe it would take a time machine to retrieve the data.

Reply   |   Comment by Acarolinensis  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+20)

"The Mounties went into a house, the owner heard them coming, and put a 45 caliber round through the hard drive. The pieces were recovered, the platters re-assembled – and enough evidence gathered to secure a conviction with a long sentence."

It's not that different in concept that having a vinyl record with a scratch -- every time the needle hits that scratch it might distort the sound or jump etc., but it can often continue playing afterwards. Data is stored on pretty much the entire surface of a hard drive platter -- the only data destroyed would be where the bullet obliterated portions of the platter(s). Now you might not be able to use the original type of read head, but there are ways to read that data. It's not cheap, so it's not done that often, but as you posted, it is possible.

That's why some US government regs [AFAIK depending on dept.] call for completely destroying data storage devices, e.g. incineration.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

#7 John, thanks for the interesting tale, but the platters in a hard drive are usually made of glass so a bullet wouldn't just leave a nice round hole the platters would shatter into tiny fragments, recovery would be impossible, maybe your ex-brother in law was in the entertainment corps.

Reply   |   Comment by Lenny  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#6

The free version of AVG Anti Virus also includes a file shredder. When you put files in the recycle bin, you right click on the bin and are given an option to shred the contents with AVG.
I don't know how efficient this one is, but I just wanted to put it out there for anyone using AVG.

Reply   |   Comment by Joe  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+17)
#5

Is this a safe method?
When I work on a project, I save it many times.
Therefore there will be always remaining parts of the old savings on the harddisk.
And these rests can be found by recover-program's.

Reply   |   Comment by Ootje  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)

IMHO the absolute safest method would be to save your work on a separate drive/partition, including temp folder storage [for any app used for your project] on that same drive/partition, then wiping that disk/partition when you're done.

Data is stored in small chunks of storage space, so a file will fill up however many, *plus* the last one which is only partially full. Thus if you were to erase the drive/partition free space, I think most wiping apps will leave any old data in those small chunks of space that aren't completely overwritten by a newer file.

There's also the possibility that if previous data is written in a track with a different center line than the overwriting data [AFAIK the reason for multiple passes], that prior data *might* be recoverable. Windows is writing to the hard drive(s) almost constantly, so there's a very good chance that an earlier saved project file might be overwritten *once* as Windows writes or expands a file. That would be the equivilent of a single pass with a file wiping app, with no option for added passes since that would delete the Windows file.

Another option of course would be to use a VM, wiping the VHD file when you're done. Assuming you have a copy of that VHD file saved prior to your project & stored somewhere else, wiping that 2nd copy of the VHD [that you used for your project], doesn't mean you have to start from scratch re-creating the VM when your project's done.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+11)

What I will add to Mike's comments above is that if you had information on a drive that you think needs to be shredded rather then use this utility after deleting I would suggest something like ccleaner which has an option in Tools-> Drive wiper-> Free space only-> say Advanced and clear out all out.

Reply   |   Comment by Bernard  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#4

When a company that creates a file erasing program is still under the delusion that the Gutmann
Method is still the best I most certainly will not bother even trying it.
Maybe it is worth their while reading the following article:-
http://www.dban.org/node/40

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+38)

If you read the description correctly, it says:
... “Gutman Method”, that probably is one of the best ways to erase data by overwriting it 35 times.

Reply   |   Comment by Bubba  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)

Bubba, are you telling me they've redefined the Gutmann Method as am totally confused by your comment.
If erasing data was a trivial task and failure was of no consequence then using a program I have no confidence in would not be a problem.

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

I've used DBAN since the beginning of time utilizing all the methods available for that particular software. The reality is that the Gutmann algorithm is overkill for most users. More then enough for the normal user with standard hard drives. The best way to delete data is to use several random-byte passes. 3 passes is plenty. And if you're looking to buy I'd suggest Blancco by the DBAN people. It's probably the best out there.

Reply   |   Comment by GT  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

The best way to delete data is with a hammer and drill.

Reply   |   Comment by TigerFan  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Not so much overkill as Gutmann states that you cannot be sure how effective it is on a modern drive.
He also states that, "If the encoding is unknown, then writing random patterns is your best strategy."

Reply   |   Comment by XP-Man  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)

XP-Man
What are the differences here?
Your statement: ... the Gutmann Method is still the best ... (taken from your statement)
and
... “Gutman Method”, that probably is one of the best ... (taken from the program description)
The difference is; you are saying a definitive statement. ie: 'is the best.'
The program description says; 'probably' and 'one of the best.' They are not claiming it is the best.
Read the program description again and tell me if you are still confused.
I am not here advocating the Gutman Method.
I am not trying to take away from your credibility here, I am simply pointing out an error you made.
To err is human ....
'Nuff said.

Reply   |   Comment by Bubba  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#3

The file shredder available in Glary Utilities , WinUtilities or Puran Utilities are actually more effective than many specialized File shredding prorgrams. But they can not create context menu entry .
1-abc.net File Washer has this advantage that it integrates into the context menu. And overall an efficient shredder and it also keeps history of wiped files for reviewing later.

Filemenu Tools also offers shredding but not so effective most of the times.

Some decent File shredder ( Freeware ) :

Moo0 File Shredder - http://www.moo0.com/?top=http://www.moo0.com/software/FileShredder/

DP Shredder - http://www.paehl.de/cms/dp_shredder

DP WIPE - http://www.paehl.de/cms/dpwipe

EraserDrop Portable - http://portableapps.com/apps/security/eraserdrop-portable

BitKiller - http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitkiller/

I would like to highlight Kryptelite which is basically a file encryption software ( free version of kryptel ) but it has integrated file shredder with manual shred option and I found it very fast shredder with very good response . It can shred large files without hassle while sometime other programs might have crashed during shredding large sized files.

Reply   |   Comment by Jahid  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+119)

Glary DOES integrate into the context menu - I'm looking at it right now, I don't know about the others.

Reply   |   Comment by George  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+30)

Ccleaner also integrates.

Reply   |   Comment by Don S  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+19)

"The file shredder available in Glary Utilities , WinUtilities or Puran Utilities are actually more effective than many specialized File shredding prorgrams."

When the software's job is to overwrite the data [1s & 0s] stored on a conventional HDD, & since methods such as the included Gutman are pretty common, the only difference that I can see between app A & app B are any added features, e.g. File Washer's ability to overwrite using your custom text file.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#2

Installed and registered without problems (* DEVELOPER READ THIS!) on a Win 8.1.3 Pro 64 system. A clean install.

A German company with all legal information.

We had had several tools from this company.
Upon start a small, not resizable window opens, you select your files/folder, choose among 11 deleting options and go. This is done without problems. A nice text must be mentioned:
http://i.imgur.com/Dj6hfVQ.png

Does what it claims, a small tool, a clean install and a message to those, who want to undelete the file. If you don't have a washing machine, you can take this. One of the deleting methods will surely work for your privacy issues...

Uninstalled via reboot. Don't need this one.


(*)
http://i.imgur.com/ijZoaib.png
Registration done with double checked email. This method has been ruled by a German court some weeks ago as unwanted SPAM and is since now forbidden in Germany. I wrote about.

Reply   |   Comment by Karl  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+109)
#1

There are so many free programs that do this it's not worth the download..sorry i use file nuke

Reply   |   Comment by Daniel  –  9 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-30)
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