MiniTool Drive Wipe

Removing files from your system does not mean they can't be brought back. Bits of data remain hidden within clusters, but there are options to make sure a disk drive becomes completely clean. With the help of applications like MiniTool Drive Wipe it's easily done in a few steps and through a series of strong algorithms.

Two main options pop up as soon as you run the application. You can either choose to wipe partitions or entire disk drives. Support is decent, with the possibility to target hard disk drives as well as external storage devices.

However, make sure you plug in everything you need before running the application because there's no refresh button to scan for new connected devices, not even if you cancel a process and start it over from the main screen.

Regardless of your initial choice, you are thrown in a wizard-driven process that takes you through a series of simple steps. This makes anyone quickly get the hang of it, with helpful descriptions along the way and advices to close any running applications for better and faster results.

One of the first steps is to pick partitions and drives to wipe. These are enlisted along with details regarding name, drive letter, as well as space distribution. Make sure to create a backup of important files or you might risk losing them permanently. This is also cleverly pointed out along the way.

You can choose from up to five methods to be used, with suggestions whether the process is slow or quick. These refer to filling up sectors with ones, zeros or both, as well as two DoD algorithms with three or seven passes.

A pending process is displayed in a new window and you'll have to wait through the process. Progress sliders give you a general idea of how fast it all goes. However, even if you choose the quickest method, it can take a disturbing amount of time, with a 4GB USB Flash drive wiped in well over ten minutes.

If you thought that was bad, then be sure to take some safety measures. This is because the application does indeed completely remove everything, but it also leaves space unallocated due to the lack of an integrated format tool. This is a major disadvantage since you rely on other applications to fully finish what you started.

In conclusion, MiniTool Drive Wipe comes with good intentions and a highly-intuitive, wizard-driven interface, but practicality plunges into freefall as soon as you trigger the process. Sure, you never get to see data stored on target devices again, but besides having to wait almost forever to finish, you also need to make the specific partition or drive accessible again through a format process, with this app is not capable of fully finishing the task.