DriveScrubber Review - Best way to wipe your drives
Your computer is the home for your sensitive data. What if you want to sell your laptop, or PC off? Deleting the data on the drive would not be enough as the data can always be recovered using the recovery tools. It would be advisable to wipe the entire drive to remove all traces of any of your personal data. DriveScrubber from Iolo Technologies is one such utility that can do the hard work for you. We will get to know about the tool in a finer detail in the following paragraphs.
Would you wish to sell off your existing computer so that you can upgrade to a better and newer version? But, beware - your computer has all that sensitive data that has been accumulated on it over the years. What if this personal data falls into the hands of someone else? If you want to stay safe from the dangers of the sensitive data being accessible to unknown persons, it would be wiser to delete the data and wipe it completely. Just deleting the data using the Delete command may not be practical solution. We are aware of a host of data recovery tools like Recuva that can easily recover all your data. Formatting too is not beyond recovery.
That is exactly where a tool like DriveScrubber from Iolo Technologies comes to our rescue. Just like the Macrorit Data Wiper which we had recently reviewed, it offers you an excellent means of destroying the data from your hard disk.What is DriveScrubber?
Well, the name itself should indicate it. Yes, it just scrubs your drive clean. Iolo Technologies has been an expert in computer management tools with an experience spread over a decade. DriveScrubber is a data deletion utility that offers you a wider range of options when it comes to deleting your data.
Iolo Technologies DriveScrubber is a pioneer in the genre of data deletion along with repair, optimisation and maintenance of your computer system. The tool can be used to delete data from an HDD. SSD or even a removable drive. What it excels is you can keep the operating system intact while wiping the data on the drive completely. The standards used by the tool while formatting the data on your drive exceed the recommendations set by Department of Defense or other Government organisations.
DriveScrubber can delete all the data including videos, images, documents or even passwords. The utility can detect all sorts of drives connected to your computer. You can wipe the USB drives, SSDs and other types of drives quite quickly. It offers you multiple options when it comes to the wiping standards. You can use the simple single pass option, or opt for the stringent seven pass standard as recommended by the Department of Defense. You can further customise the options to suit your exact requirements. How does it work?
Installation works like a charm. You can install it on a 32 or 64 bit systems. It gets installed quite easily. On launching the application, you will get three options to choose from - Deleting the contents of a drive, Removing the remaining parts of a deleted application and Creating a bootable disk. 
If you choose to wipe an entire drive, you will be guided through a set of steps. In the first option, you are asked to choose the type of drive - whether it is a primary drive or removable drive. Once you choose the drive, you can now opt for a custom method to wipe the drive. You can choose the simplest of all - the single pass system, or go for DOD 5220.22‐M technique which is the Defense Department standard. Then there is the Guttman technique that uses 35 passes.
The utility uses a number of checkpoints to make sure that no data is wiped off accidentally. The erase function will not begin until you confirm it under several control points. Once commenced, the time taken for the completion of the data deletion will depend on the size of the disk and the deletion method you have chosen. Under standard conditions, it should be finished under an hour.
The option for Removing the remnants of a deleted application is useful when you want to remove the remnants of a previously deleted program. Just choose the drive and click on Analyse button. The utility will search your drive for the files and remove the remainders of the uninstalled programs.
The third option lets you create a bootable disk to be used while performing a complete wiping operation on your system. The bootable disk will let you wipe the computer in its entirety so that you can install an all new operating system on your computer. The option is much helpful when your system is infected with severe malware or virus attack.The features
DriveScrubber is one of the trustworthy applications that any computer user would vouch for. Some of the salient features of the software include Pros and Cons
As with any tool, or utility Iolo DriveScrubber too has its own set of shortcomings. A few pros and cons can be listed as here below.
Pros
ConsThe pricing
Iolo Technologies has priced the utility at $ 23.96. You can opt for the Whole Life License that will let you install it on all your home PCs. The price indicated will offer you a year of free upgrades. The tool is compatible with Windows® 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista or XP (SP3).
The Final Thoughts
The tool may not be quite easy to operate. The steps involved are a little complex and may not be understood much easily by the novices. Even in that case, DriveScrubber happens to be a great performer from the data deletion point of view. Coming from Iolo Technologies, we would consider it to be a wise investment that you can make keeping in view the security that it offers for your sensitive data.
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