Disk Wipe Bootable USB Tools: 9 Best to Use in 2025
Simply deleting files or reformatting a drive doesn’t fully erase your data. Use specialized tools to securely wipe your hard drive, SSD, USB stick, or memory card before handing them over.
About Disk Wipe Tools & Why Use Them
A lot of computer users know that when you delete a file, it isn’t actually completely gone from the system—it can often be recovered with a simple piece of data recovery software.
This is especially important if you’re selling, giving away, or lending an old computer, hard drive, USB stick, or external drive, as someone else could easily recover your supposedly deleted data, posing a major security risk.
Why Secure Data Wiping is Essential
Simply deleting a file or even reformatting a drive leaves behind data that can be recovered. Whether it’s an internal drive, external storage, or a USB stick, any data you don’t want others to access must be wiped clean. This protects your privacy and prevents sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands.
Best Free & Paid USB Bootable Disk Wipe Tools
1. AOMEI Partition Assistant
Features:
- Offers four distinct wiping methods for tailored security.
- Provides separate protocols: “Wipe Hard Drive” for HDDs and “Secure Erase SSD” for SSDs to protect device performance.
- Includes options to resize partitions and enable quick partition recovery.
Usage:
- Download and install the application.
- Right-click on the drive you want to erase and select Wipe Hard Drive.
- Choose your preferred wiping method, click OK, then Apply followed by Proceed.
Official Link:
Visit AOMEI Partition Assistant Official Website
2. Darik’s Boot And Nuke (DBAN)
Features:
- A bootable tool that automatically erases all detected partitions.
- Ideal for sanitizing an entire system or multiple drives at once.
Usage:
- Burn the ISO to a CD/DVD or create a bootable USB stick.
- Boot your computer into DBAN’s interactive mode.
- Choose your desired wiping method (note: typing autonuke erases all drives without confirmation).
Official Link:
Visit DBAN Official Website
3. HDShredder
Features:
- Available in a free version that performs a single-pass erase on whole hard drives.
- Offered as a portable Windows executable, IMG floppy image, and ISO CD/USB image.
- Includes a hex viewer and the ability to select multiple drives with a MultiShred option.
Usage:
- Best used when the drive is intended for a trusted party, as it isn’t clear whether it uses a zero fill or random fill.
Official Link:
Visit HDShredder Official Website
4. Parted Magic Eraser
Features:
- A leading Linux bootable environment for partitioning and securely erasing drives.
- Recommended for both HDDs and SSDs.
- Includes the Disk Eraser tool and NWipe for multi-pass wiping, plus an Internal Secure Erase that issues the ATA command for maximum security.
Usage:
- Download the ISO and write it to a CD or USB stick.
- Boot from the media and launch the Disk Eraser tool (found on the desktop or within System Tools).
Official Link:
Visit Parted Magic Official Website
- Also featured on Hiren’s Boot CD repair disc
5. CMRR HDDErase
Features:
- Developed by The Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR) and sponsored by the NSA.
- Issues the ATA Secure Erase Command, ideal for drives larger than 15GB made since 2001.
- Offers an Enhanced Secure Erase option if supported.
Usage:
- Run the tool from a DOS environment via a floppy, CD, or bootable USB stick.
- At the prompt, type hdderase and follow the on-screen instructions.
Official Link:
Visit CMRR HDDErase Official Page
6. Roadkil’s Disk Wipe
Features:
- A lightweight, portable executable (around 50KB).
- Allows you to choose between zero fill or random data and select the number of passes.
- Compatible with floppy disks, USB pen sticks, and runs on Windows 95 and above.
Usage:
- Select your desired settings from the drop-down menu and click to erase.
Official Link:
Visit Roadkil’s Disk Wipe Official Website
7. Hardwipe
Features:
- Securely erases entire drives, specific files, folders, or the drive’s remaining free space.
- Offers multiple methods: zero fill, random fill (default), DOD 3 pass, DOD 7 pass, Schneier (7 pass), and the 35-pass Gutmann method.
- Now available in an official portable version (note: the Explorer context menu is only available in the installer version).
- Includes auto-throttling to slow the process when computer activity is detected.
Usage:
- Choose the volume to wipe, select your erasing method, and optionally verify the erase or shutdown after completion.
Official Link:
Visit Hardwipe Official Website
8. Disk Wipe
Features:
- A standalone, portable utility that works with hard drives, USB sticks, and memory cards.
- Formats the drive before wiping for faster performance.
- Offers seven erasing methods including quick zero fill, random fill, British HMG, DOD 5220, and Gutmann methods.
- Includes a “View Data” option to inspect drive contents.
Usage:
- Select the appropriate file system (FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS) and your desired erasing method.
Official Link:
Visit Disk Wipe Official Website
9. MiniTool Drive Wipe
Features:
- Developed by the creators of Partition Wizard.
- Offers two main options: Wipe Partition or Wipe Disk.
- Provides five basic erasing methods including single and dual pass options, as well as DOD 3 or 7 pass methods.
- Note: The program isn’t portable by default unless extracted using Universal Extractor.
Usage:
- Select the appropriate wiping mode and choose the target volume using a partition manager-style layout.
Official Link:
Visit MiniTool Drive Wipe Official Website
Additional Considerations
Editor’s Note:
Tools like CCleaner or Eraser aren’t included here because they have been covered in a separate article about wiping the free space on hard drives. That article is also worth reading for a broader understanding of data sanitization.
Special Note:
There’s ongoing debate about the number of passes required to make data irretrievable. In most cases, one or two passes using a random fill are sufficient. Even Peter Gutmann—the proponent of a 35-pass method—has indicated that for drives manufactured since around 2001, two random passes are optimal. For SSDs, running the ATA Secure Erase command is recommended, as it resets memory cells to factory condition and may restore performance. Alternatively, encrypting the drive with software such as BitLocker or TrueCrypt before a wipe adds extra security.
Read more:
Conclusion
Ensuring that your data is permanently erased before transferring or disposing of storage devices is critical for protecting your privacy. By using one of these specialized tools and following best practices for secure data wiping, you can prevent unauthorized recovery of your sensitive information.
I always use this tool because it’s simple and written in Java so can be used on my personal Mac as well as the Windows workstation at office.
softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/Shred.shtml
An interesting tool but pointless for what we are trying to do here because it can’t wipe a hard drive, only files or free space.
Note that some of the above tools will NOT securely wipe a harddrive. They will wipe a harddrive – which means a casual user wont be able to recover files. However, writing Random Data is not enough to stop determined hackers. Even multiple passes of writing Random Data is not enough to stop determined hackers with the right tools.
Read this old paper (it’s well written and a really good read), and you will get an idea of some of the issues:
* “Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory” by Peter Gutmann of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, The Sixth USENIX Security Symposium, July 22–25, 1996, San Jose, California, USA, usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/sec96/full_papers/gutmann/
We link to the update of the article you mention on page 2 in which Mr. Gutmann says a few scrubs with random data is the best you can do and the types of drives he was talking about in the original article don’t exist anymore. He also says the chances of being able to recover any meaningful data from a modern hard drive is close to zero. While it’s not an absolute zero chance, it’s low enough for the vast majority of users.
Um…in the 4th program “4. CMRR HDDErase” all 4 files in the zip file are password protected.
Any reason for this, is that normal, it it safe to use AND what’s the password please?
Also, can this article be updated please, it’s been 3+ years and I’d like to know if all this info is still accurate or not.
Thanks!
The unpack password is on the download page. We have to password protect files that produce false positives with online scanners like Virus Total. If we don’t do that our download server quickly gets marked as a malicious source.
That does not make sense. If the ZIP file is clean and does NOT contains items that infected with viruses or malware, then your web site / server should never be flagged as a malicious source.
If the ZIP file triggers a couple of false positives, then I doubt your web site / server would be flagged as a malicious source
I don’t think you quite understand. If you have an executable with false positives and Zip it, the archive contains a file with false positives. AV scanners open archives and will easily pick that up. The only way to help stop a scanner detecting a file with false positives is to Zip and password protect it.
It only takes a small number of files/archives with false positives for a server to get flagged as malicious. When we password Zipped any of our files with false positives, our server went from malicious to clean within days. We let some files with FP’s through and it got flagged again.
Almost any smaller server could get flagged as malicious even if all the detections are false positives. AV scanners don’t differentiate between false and real positives, to them, ALL positives are real.
Check using Sandboxie and regexport and check malicious keys
The doesn’t make any difference, it’s whether a file gets marked as malicious by an online antivirus engine like VT, not whether it actually is malicious.
I have personally used the freespace wiping feature from a number of tools, such as CCleaner, BCWipe, DBAN etc. BCWipe stands out with their management of reserved space feature for the free space wiping. The tool allows you to lock freespace after wiping once, so you don’t need to wipe free space every now and then. This feature in BCWipe is particularly handy while wiping free space on SSD drives – less wear. The feature is smart enough to release the locked space when needed, so the drive does not run into low disk space. BCWipe is also very user friendly with a simple GUI, so quite easy to use.
hey can u suggest me any data wiping tool more efficient than DBAN.???
Why are you suggesting DBAN is not efficient? They all wipe the drive so will do a similar job.
Anyway, that’s why we give you eight choices, if one isn’t to your liking there are others to choose from.
I tried DBAN on a UEFI enabled disks. It does not seem to work.
DBAN works on UEFI systems, it depends on what you mean by doesn’t work. Doesn’t boot, refuses to wipe, fails while wiping???
Yes I also try many time same issue as like KHAIRIL ANWAR JUSOH.
BCWipe and BCWipe Total WipeOut. First is for selective wiping and the later is for whole disk wiping. They have been in business since 1995 and the tool is used by Department of defence and Airforce.
I used Darik’s Boot And Nuke (DBAN) from a bootable USB drive.
After creating the bootable USB drive, I hit F2 and changed the boot sequence of my laptop to pick USB first. Once booted from USB drive, I used the autonuke option. Two and a half hours later, the Hard drive has been wiped clean. I repeated the DBAN autonuke a second time just for good measure.
I used Hiten Boot Disk to see if any files could be recovered from hard drive and there’s nothing there! Success! Thanks
This really helped me get around a pesky FBI investigation
Thanks for your article but I need additional help please. I have a Dell Latitude E5530 and I want to prevent deleted files from being recovered. I want to keep existing files. What is the best software for that purpose please? Thanks.
Arthur
CCleaner has this feature
rofl, be sure to trust with the data so important and dangerous that you want to wipe with a 7pass and zeroing with the corporation that had a malware attack that infected over 2.3 million users who downloaded or updated their CCleaner app between August and September
I have used Unistal’s data wipe software which wipes the data from the hard drive so that it can never be recovered from any software.
Thanks for the useful information Raymond And HAL9000.
Thanks a lot Ray!!!
nice post..
Today I read your column and it’s really very nice in order for us users to protect our privacy.
Nice post Mr. Ray. Thank you very much and more power in this blog.
very very very nice
thanks a lot Mr. Raymond
Only this week i discovered your blog, and i do enjoy reading it. I’m surfing through every page, from your first page.
thanks for the post…really very useful….
saw the thing in action…..