Top 5 Best Free Data Erasure Tools for Windows (Pros & Cons) - 2024

Updated by

Tracy King 

Updated on April 22, 2024

How to wipe a hard drive for free? Do you know the best way to destroy data in 2024? Using Diskpart clean command does work. However, it's not the wisest solution to erase data from Windows HDD, SSD, or external drives.

Instead of paying for data and hard drive erasure, you have a better option – turn to reliable data and hard drive erasure software. On this page, you'll learn about the top 5 free data erasure programs for Windows 10/8/7. Pick one and follow the tutorial to learn how to completely wipe out your computer data on your own.

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[1] Top 5 Recommended Free Hard Drive Data Erasure Software for 2024

Then, what is the best hard drive wiper software? When you search for hard drive wiper or data eraser software on Google, you will get too many results on the search page. To find the right one, you need to download and try each data wiper or disk wiper one by one.

After days of testing, we narrowed down the list to more than fifty disk cleaning tools, and we're featuring the five best ones here to help you.

Study the pros and cons of each data erasure tool, choose one, and follow its tutorial to delete all files and immediately restore the drive to its out-of-the-box state:

Among the 5 free hard drive data erasure software, BitWiper Free tool is recommended for most Windows users to try, which is equipped with advanced data erasing and disk wiping features for a 100% green and efficient data wipe.

Now, let's proceed to learn more about the advanced features of these data-wiping utilities and see how you can erase data from your computer's hard drive for free.

#1. Tool - BitWiper Free Edition

Use it to erase data from a partition, delete an entire disk, or even sanitize the data on your computer.

BitWiper is more than just a simple hard drive or data eraser software. Apart from wiping data, it also allows you to destroy files and protect your personal data with its advanced features. This tool can be used by all Windows users to reset hard drive to a brand new state.

Key Features:

• Erase HDD/SSD, external hard drives, USB, SD cards, and more for free.
• Wipe computer operating system drives with a bootable disk (not free).
• Destroy individual files or folders.
• Multiple disk wiping algorithms available.

Data Erasure Software Free Download:

How to wipe data:

Step 1: Launch the BitWiper tool. Click on the “Wipe Disk” tab.

Step 2. Select the HDD or SSD you want to erase.

Important: Make sure you select the correct HDD or SSD. Once the wipe begins, your data is irretrievable.

Step 3: Choose an erasing method and click “Next”.

Choose a suitable wiping method. Use a secure eraser tool for best results!

Step 4: Read the warning, then click “Clear” to confirm.

5. Wait for the process to complete, then click “Finish.”

How to Wipe a Hard Drive or SSD:

Step 1: Run the BitWiper tool and click on “File Shredder”.

Select File Shredder

Step 2: Click on "Add Files" to select the files you need to shred, or you can just drag the files, documents, images, music files, etc. to the middle area.

Select the files to wipe out

Step 3. Re-select the files you want to wipe, then click “Wipe” to confirm.

Step 4: The program will immediately wipe all selected files. Click “Done” when finished.

If you like this free data erasure software, you can also share it with other friends in need through the button below!

#2 Blancco Drive Eraser

Applies to: Erasing data from devices such as desktops, laptops, and servers.

Blancco Drive Eraser is a certified data erasure tool that can wipe files from SSDs, multiple drives, and even the BIOS. If you're looking for a certified data erasure software, Blancco Drive Eraser might be one of them.

Key Features:

• Erasing data from SSD and HDD volumes.
• Erasing data from within the BIOS.
• Identifying false positives during data erasure.
• Support for data erasure on server machines.

Free Data Erasure Software Download: https://www.blancco.com/products/drive-eraser/

How to wipe data:

Step one is to choose specific data-cleansing standards.

Step 2: Follow the program's instructions to overwrite the data on your device.

Step 3: The software will verify that the data has been successfully erased.

Step 4: When done, the software creates a tamper-proof certificate as proof that the wipe was successfully completed.

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#HDD Erasure#Free#Windows

#3. CCleaner

Applies to: Deleting files and data from your computer, hard drive, and Internet browser.

CCleaner is an old and advanced data-wiping utility that can erase data from your hard drive and free up disk space in specific areas of your computer. However, the free version currently only offers standard-level privacy protection and cleaning features.

Key Features:

• Support for checking your computer's health status
• Support for customizing the cleaning of your computer, including File Explorer files, web browsing cookies, download locations, etc.
• Ability to make changes to the registry
• Options to uninstall applications, wipe disks, search for system restore images, find duplicate files, and disable startup programs

Free Download Data Erasure Software: https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner

How to Wipe Data

1. Click on "Custom Clean" in CCleaner.

Step 2: Scroll down to the Advanced category, and tap Free Up Space.

Use CCleaner to wipe disk data:

Step 3: Click OK on the warning prompt and run CCleaner to clean your disk.

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#CCleaner#Disk-Cleaning Tool#Free

#4. DBAN

Applies to: Erasing information stored on desktop computers, laptop computers, and servers.

DBAN is a free tool for wiping hard drives. While it claims it can't fully sanitize an entire drive and may not detect SSDs when wiping SSD data, its free features do provide a comprehensive data erasure solution for many companies.

Key Features:

• Permanent data deletion
• Wipe hard disk drives with ATA, SATA, and SCSI interfaces.
• Remove viruses/spyware from a Microsoft Windows installation.

Free Data Erasure Software Download: https://dban.org/

How to Wipe a Hard Drive:

1. Download DBAN, and save the ISO file to your computer.

Step 2: Burn DBAN to your USB flash drive.

Step 3: Reboot your computer and boot from the DBAN USB drive.

Step 4: Select an option from the DBAN main menu by pressing Enter.

Step 5: Type the command to erase the hard drive data:

• dod - DoD 5220.22-M
• dodshort - same as dod, but overwrites only three times instead of seven
• ops2 - RCMP TSSIT OPS-II
• gutmann - Gutmann method
• prng - random data
• quick - write zeros (whole drive erasure)

Step 6: Select the drive you want to erase, and then wait for the process to finish.

DBAN should now have successfully wiped your hard drive. If the wipe process completed, you'll see a success message.

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#Disk wiping utility#Free#DBAN

#5. Disk Wiping

Applies to: Wiping volume data, erasing all data from a disk, and preventing recovery of that data.

Disk Wipe is a free software released under the EULA license, allowing individual users to wipe data from their hard drives for free. In addition to disk wiping, it also offers formatting options, so you can format your hard drive but still have the possibility of recovering data.

Key Features:

• Erases data from partitions and disk volumes.
• No installation required.
• Quick format the drive before cleaning for better performance.
• Supports NTFS, FAT, and FAT32 disk formats.

Data Wiping Software Free Download: https://www.diskwipe.org/

How to wipe data:

Step 1: Run DiskWipe.exe on your computer.

Step 2: Select the drive or partition you want to erase, then click Erase Disk.

Step 3: The program will ask you whether you want to format the disk as NTFS, FAT, or FAT32. Choose one.

Step 4: Choose the erasing mode and pass count you want to use: Zero Fill Once, Random Fill Once, or the US Department of Defense (DoD) standard.

Wait for the process to finish.

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#Disk Erasure#Wipe Disk Data#Free

Select the simplest data and hard drive erasure software to wipe your data now.

On this page, we have gathered five of the best free data erasure software that you can use to wipe and permanently delete data from your computer's hard drive.

After weighing the pros and cons and standout features of each, you should have a clear idea which one to pick. If you're still unsure, here's our Editor's Choice to help you out and give a try:

• For internet data erasure, CCleaner is a good option.
• For server data cleaning, Blancco Drive Eraser with certified data erasure capabilities can be helpful.
• If you need the simplest and most efficient data wiping software, you can use the BitWiper tool.