Which Utility to "Erase" or Wipe external HD

I am returning a Seagate portable back up drive that I'm disappointed in.



Unfortunately, instead of reading first on how to TRULY get rid of the one folder on it in such a way that it can't be retrieved, I simply deleted it and reformatted the drive. But that's not enough, I learned.



So I now have the Eraser from Portable Apps. But it tells me that (and the drive now has nothing on it, to the naked eye, maybe that's the problem?) it "failed to determine cluster size, and failed to create temporary file in that drive. So, it didn't do anything.


Is there a utility that will wipe this drive at this point? I tried DiskWipe, but it is extremely time consuming. It took about 8 hours just to reformat, and then I moved my laptop by a tiny smidgen and the reformatting was aborted because now the file was lost. It was at that point 82% done. After 8 hours. (in their user guide they talk about the "Fast format option" but they must have updated the app because there is no choice about the formatting speed.)


Any suggestions? I also downloaded the Eraser from Heidi Software but it doesn't come as a portable and I am nervous that it's the kind of app that might have a mind of its own. Anyone used this on an external drive? (I think this one is a shredder whereas the other things mentioned are wipers. Not sure if this matters.)



Has anyone used SafeWiper?

Thanks Paul. I think it IS usable with Win7 though I never got around to it. There is actually a stunning number of utilities that wipe/erase anything you want. Not all are created equal!

Snick said:

CCleaner free has a wipe feature up to GUTMAN 35 passes, although two or three should suffice!

I ran their tool, then ran Recuva and was still able to retrieve my data. YMMV.

tidybear12 said:

I am returning a Seagate portable back up drive that I'm disappointed in.



Unfortunately, instead of reading first on how to TRULY get rid of the one folder on it in such a way that it can't be retrieved, I simply deleted it and reformatted the drive. But that's not enough, I learned.



So I now have the Eraser from Portable Apps. But it tells me that (and the drive now has nothing on it, to the naked eye, maybe that's the problem?) it "failed to determine cluster size, and failed to create temporary file in that drive. So, it didn't do anything.


Is there a utility that will wipe this drive at this point? I tried DiskWipe, but it is extremely time consuming. It took about 8 hours just to reformat, and then I moved my laptop by a tiny smidgen and the reformatting was aborted because now the file was lost. It was at that point 82% done. After 8 hours. (in their user guide they talk about the "Fast format option" but they must have updated the app because there is no choice about the formatting speed.)


Any suggestions? I also downloaded the Eraser from Heidi Software but it doesn't come as a portable and I am nervous that it's the kind of app that might have a mind of its own. Anyone used this on an external drive? (I think this one is a shredder whereas the other things mentioned are wipers. Not sure if this matters.)



Has anyone used SafeWiper?

Is this a SSD or platter?

You may have already wrote data over the previous folder data already. You can try Recuva and see if anything is recovered, but if you are really super paranoid, Recuva might not be as good enough. I mean, a crime lab probably has waaaay better solutions.

You could try Trucrypt, select the drive for encryption (make damn sure it's the right drive letter) and encrypt with the erase free space option. Prior to this I'd use H2testw to write data to the entire drive, then encrypt the drive. Now simply format. Data is gone.

Or pull a Clinton. Download | BleachBit

(Not being political so don't pull on my cape)

Been there done that. Have you ran Recuva afterwards? I'm curious about your results.

I've read that all those passes aren't necessary.