What's a good, free data erasure app for external drives?

[Ken90630]

Anyone know of a good and free data erasure application to use on external hard drives and flash drives?

I'd use DBAN, but I can't see a way to make it wipe anything but the primary HD.

I came across MediaWiper via a Google search, but they want $39 for it. I'd rather find a free one if possible.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[tcsenter]

Use the diagnostic software utility that is available from the HDD manufacturer.

 

[TJCS]

I had some HDD detection errors when using DBAN recently, so I decided to give Active Kill Disk a try and I end up liking it. The interface is easy to use, and I haven't run into any errors like I had recently with DBAN.

The trial version of Kill Disk only provide 1-pass, so if you were looking for 3 or more the free version probably won't fit your needs.

 

[Ken90630]

Use the diagnostic software utility that is available from the HDD manufacturer.

Well, the drive I wanna erase right now is a Toshiba laptop drive and I can't find a utility on Toshiba's Website. Wasted a half hour looking for one. And I can't use DBAN 'cuz the laptop's mobo died and it won't boot up. But I can hook the drive up to my PC with a USB-to-SATA adapter and wipe it that way.

I'd prefer to just get one app that will wipe all external drives, as opposed to a bunch of diagnostics (Sea Tools, Data Lifeguard, etc.) from each drive mfgr.

I can buy one; was just hoping to find a good free one (a la DBAN).

 

[tcsenter]

Download Data LifeGuard Diagnostic from Western Digital. It will let you write zeros (a.k.a. low level format) to PATA, SATA, and external USB drives from any manufacturer.

 

[rudder]

Eraser from Sourceforge.net

 

[Ken90630]

Download Data LifeGuard Diagnostic from Western Digital. It will let you write zeros (a.k.a. low level format) to PATA, SATA, and external USB drives from any manufacturer.

Didn't know that. Thanks.

 

[Ken90630]

Eraser from Sourceforge.net

OK, will check that out too. Thanks.