Secure Data Eraser - FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Miscellaneous Questions
   Q: Regarding ObjectWipe, will this program securely wipe an Olympus XD card, and will the card be usable afterwards?
   Q: I am evaluating ObjectWipe and reasonably impressed but I have been unable to find the "Recycle Bin" so I can wipe the files there? Why not?
   Q: When a file is deleted, the name remains in the directory structure, with a single character up front indicating it's deleted. Can ObjectWipe do anything to clear out these names?
   Q: When I delete an email from Outlook and then launch ObjectWipe, is it possible to find this deleted email on my computer?
   Q: I have a recovery program but not a wipe program. Except for security, what does the wipe program do for me? Does it clear the space on the disk or does it replace it with something else? Does it add to the life of the disk if it is wiped on a regular basis? Does it take away from the life of the disk if I don't?
   Q: I am having trouble wiping a computer C: drive. I run ObjectWipe from a CD but always get the message: "File, Disk & Flash memory wiping has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available". Can you give me any suggestions on how to get me going?
   Q: Is there a way to verify the results of a disk wipe? Do you have a sector viewer or something I can use to confirm the process completed successfully?
   Q: Does your ObjectWipe program's "Wipe unused space" feature take into account slack space?
   Q: I have been using ObjectWipe and it is great, I would like to purchase it. Is it available for download to a CD (DVD) so I can use it on my three machines, one at a time?

1. Miscellaneous Questions

Q: Regarding ObjectWipe, will this program securely wipe an Olympus XD card, and will the card be usable afterwards?
A: Yes, if the card can be made to appear in Windows as a drive, but if you wipe the card clean, you will have to reformat it.

Q: I am evaluating ObjectWipe and reasonably impressed but I have been unable to find the "Recycle Bin" so I can wipe the files there? Why not?
A: The Recycle Bin is just a hidden folder in Windows serving as a receptacle for casually deleted files/folders. You can "unhide" it, if need be, and wipe as a folder, but the easiest (and none the less secure) way would be to right-click the icon on the desktop and "empty" it, and then "Wipe free disk space" with ObjectWipe.

Q: When a file is deleted, the name remains in the directory structure, with a single character up front indicating it's deleted. Can ObjectWipe do anything to clear out these names?
A: When you go for "Wipe files and folders" in ObjectWipe, the selected files are first renamed in a random pattern, then wiped out.

On the other hand, "Wiping free disk space" also fills the file allocation table (or its equivalent) to the limit with arbitrary content.

Which means, if you use both, you can't go wrong.

Q: When I delete an email from Outlook and then launch ObjectWipe, is it possible to find this deleted email on my computer?
A: If it were an ordinary file, it would be quite simple: delete the file, empty the Recycle Bin, then wipe free space with ObjectWipe. Outlook emails, however, aren't files, they are records in a larger database file, so the above applies only to these .pst files as a whole, not the individual emails.

Q: I have a recovery program but not a wipe program. Except for security, what does the wipe program do for me? Does it clear the space on the disk or does it replace it with something else? Does it add to the life of the disk if it is wiped on a regular basis? Does it take away from the life of the disk if I don't?
A: The sole purpose of data wiping is destroying information which can otherwise be retrieved by data-recovery methods from an apparently empty storage space. Yes, it always replaces the (hidden) data with something, zeroes in the simplest cases. It does not affect the life of a disk any more than any other read/write activity.

Q: I am having trouble wiping a computer C: drive. I run ObjectWipe from a CD but always get the message: "File, Disk & Flash memory wiping has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available". Can you give me any suggestions on how to get me going?
A: ObjectWipe may be on a CD or USB stick but it is still controlled by the operating system which resides on drive C. Trying to wipe drive C is essentially telling Windows to kill itself, which it will obviously find difficult to do.

The right way to wipe this hard disk would be to plug it in another computer as additional passive storage and then run ObjectWipe on it.

Q: Is there a way to verify the results of a disk wipe? Do you have a sector viewer or something I can use to confirm the process completed successfully?
A: No, we do not have a sector viewer, you will need some third-party software to do that (WinHex comes to mind, perhaps you could use their trial version).

Q: Does your ObjectWipe program's "Wipe unused space" feature take into account slack space?
A: No, not the current version.

Q: I have been using ObjectWipe and it is great, I would like to purchase it. Is it available for download to a CD (DVD) so I can use it on my three machines, one at a time?
A: You mean, can the program be run from a CD? Yes, if you save your activation code as ObjectWipe.key (in text format), copy the file to the program's folder (C:\Program Files\ObjectWipe\) and then burn the folder to a CD.