Wanted: a free, novice-proof disk wiper

Wiping the data off old drives is a smart thing to do, but secure erasing also must be easy to do.

For example, a reader wrote:

"I do some work for an organization that often processes computers before distributing them to charities, for example. We always wipe the hard drives using a Department of Defense (DoD) wipe. We've been using a bootable floppy disk to perform the wipes, but fewer computers than ever have floppy drives, and for reasons I won't discuss, we won't use a USB floppy drive to start the process.

"Do you know of any free disk wipers that can be written on a bootable CD and that can accomplish a secure disk wipe? I've found only one, Darik's Boot and Nuke, from DBAN [more info]. But it's confusing to nontechies, and clumsy even for techies. We could use something simpler."

It's a really, really good idea to data-wipe old drives. Discarded and recycled PCs are a rich vein for identity thieves to tap.

But this reader is dealing with two separate issues: he needs a tool that's easier to use than the one he currently has *and* one that can run on a bootable CD. I have a solution, but it takes a minute to explain, and that's the meat of the main topic in my column for WindowsSecrets.Com this week.

Other topics include:

• What, exactly, are Windows 7's Libraries?
• Windows Genuine Advantage: a necessary evil?
• Config.Msi folder grows truly huge

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