A couple weeks ago, I reviewed MediaRECOVER from a company called Fresh Crop. The software was designed to help you undelete files you thought you had lost, and it worked well. But what about the files you don’t want to come back… ever?
Deleted Doesn’t Mean It’s Gone
Fresh Crop also provides software called MediaWIPE for your sensitive files you want gone forever. When you delete a file, it’s not really gone. Yes, even though you emptied the recycle bin. It’s still on your hard drive or other storage media but you just can’t see it. In fact, that’s what makes software like MediaRECOVER work. To truly delete something forever requires some additional steps. That’s what MediaWIPE promises to do for you, so I put it to the test.
Does MediaWIPE Really Work?
According to the site, they use US Department of Defense (DoD 5220.22-M) seven step erasing standard to completely erase your files. Armed with one large unwanted file and several small ones, I fired up the program and started with the big file (about 150 MB).
Getting ready involved just a simple browse and select for the file. This software will wipe full directories as well. With my file selected, I clicked the Next button. I then confirmed my decision to delete this file with a checkbox and about five minutes later, my file was gone. I then did this for the smaller files in the same way.
After deleting these files, I tried to recover them. Using MediaRECOVER as well as another file recovery program, I had no success finding my deleted files. MediaWIPE seems to have truly wiped the files from my computer completely.
Portable File Wiping
One feature that makes this software even more convenient to use is the MediaWIPE Portable Maker. It’s a little program that comes bundled with MediaWIPE and it installs a portable copy of MediaWIPE onto a portable storage device like a memory stick. To try it out, I installed it on an 8GB MicroSD card I carry around with me. I popped the card into another computer and was running MediaWIPE straight from the card pretty quickly. If it’s not the same full version installed on my desktop, it sure looks like it. Providing the same secure file removal experience as the desktop, I can now wipe any file or folder on any computer without ever installing software on that machine.
The portable install of MediaWIPE has some obvious uses. I imagine most people might use this when checking their email from a friend’s computer or a computer in a public place. Anything you downloaded to the public computer can be securely removed without installing a thing on it. This method doesn’t require Administrator privileges, so it’s quick and easy. Not bad!
Conclusions
Living up to its name and its promises, MediaWIPE does the job when you need files gone permanently. The software installed, started, and ran quickly and easily which, combined with the $19.95 price, makes it an easy choice for anyone concerned about sensitive data.
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