Good Windows hard drive formatting app?

[KrillBee]

I am looking for a hard drive formatting application which is free, runs within a Windows environment, and can do the following:

3 cycle format: single character, complement character, random character
(you may have seen this being referenced by the Department of Defense Security Matrix).

7 cycle format: single character, complement character, random character, single character, single character, complement character, random character
(often referred to as the ECE standard)

Any ideas? I know about DBAN, but the problem with DBAN is that it only runs in a limited environment and I have a computer with 16 sata controllers that can only be recognized if the right Windows driver is installed.

 

[yinan]

Ok, for one I do not know how you can have that many controllers, but whatever. But if you can afford that box you can afford to just trash the drives.



Now if you can't at least try to be helpful, then stay out of the thread.

You response was a complete threadcrap.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[KrillBee]

yinan,
I do not appreciate your post. The box was donated. Trashing drives is about $5-10 per drive. Please be more respectful in your future posts and do not make so many assumptions.

Let's keep this thread on focused on solving the problem with a good Windows application and lets not derail this any further.

 

[Scouzer]

Eraser?

 

[Modelworks]

Overwriting the contents of a drive more than once is pointless. Nobody has ever recovered data from a drive overwritten one time. All the talk of DOD standards doesn't matter now because the DOD doesn't erase drives like that anymore, they shred the drives. The old 3+ overwrites methods were when drives were so expensive they cost too much to discard. Now it is cheaper and faster to just shred them .

The actual procedure is the drive is removed from the pc with a witness present, they are not allowed to be stored anywhere once removed from the computer case. Immediately pllaced in the shredder. Shreds are binned in a box and taped with security tape and the boxes are sent to recycling where the contents are placed in an induction furnace.

That is about as secure as it gets.

If you want to do it in windows anyway roadkils disk wipe is free and no install needed.
http://roadkil.net/program.php/P14/Disk%20Wipe