List of data-erasing software

This is a list of utilities for performing data erasure.

Name	Developer	Licensing	Operating system required to run	Maintained?	Supported wipe methods	Reports
BleachBit	Andrew Ziem and contributors	GNU General Public License	Windows, Linux	Yes	external [1]	on screen, Copy and Paste-able
CCleaner	Piriform	Trialware	Windows, OS X	Yes	external [2]	?
Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN)	Darik Horn	GNU General Public License	OS independent, based on Linux	No	external [3]	?
dd [4] [5]		Same as host OS	Unix	Yes	external	not directly supported without scripting
Disk Utility	Apple	Commercial proprietary software	OS X	Yes	external [6]	?
Eraser	Heidi Computers Limited	GNU GPL v3	Windows	Yes	external [7]	?
HDDerase	University of California, San Diego	Freeware	OS independent, based on DOS	No	internal [8]	?
hdparm	Mark Lord	BSD license	Linux	Yes	internal [9]	not directly supported without scripting
nwipe	Martijn van Brummelen	GNU GPL v2	Linux	Yes	external	Yes
Parted_Magic	Patrick Verner, Parted Magic LLC	uses mostly GPL components with published source, a few proprietary components, and fee for media/download [10] [11]	OS independent, based on Slackware Linux	Yes	internal, external [12]	CSV, TXT, and extended TXT [13]
shred	GNU Project	GNU GPL v3	Unix	Yes	external [14]	not directly supported without scripting
ShredIt	Mireth Technology, Burningthumb Software	Trialware	Windows, OS X	Yes	?	?
srm	Dirk Jagdmann	MIT License [15]	Unix	Yes	external	not directly supported without scripting

References

1. "BleachBit Features" . Retrieved 3 April 2016.
2. "CCleaner Features" . Retrieved 3 April 2016.
3. "DBAN / Blancco Feature Comparison". Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
4. Elliot, Duncan (11 November 2009). "Using "dd" and "urandom" to write random data to a disk". Duncan Elliot's blog. IBM . Retrieved 17 March 2014.
5. Hodgetts, Benjamin (4 December 2010). "Securely Wiping (Zero Writing) a Drive". Robot Butler. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
6. "OS X: About Disk Utility's erase free space feature" . Retrieved 3 April 2016.
7. "Appendix A: Erasure Methods" . Retrieved 31 January 2019.
8. "HDDErase Readme" . Retrieved 3 April 2016.
9. "kernel.org ATA wiki" . Retrieved 3 April 2016.
10. "Parted Magic software components". Parted Magic software list. 3 April 2016.
11. "Parted Magic source code". Archived from the original on 11 April 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
12. "Parted Magic Secure Erase". Parted Magic web site. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
13. "Parted Magic Secure Erase". Parted Magic web site. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
14. "shred invocation" . Retrieved 3 April 2016.
15. "secure rm". SourceForge. Dice Holdings. 31 January 2014.

See also

• List of data recovery software