Compare the Top Free Data Destruction Software as of January 2026

What is Free Data Destruction Software?

Data destruction software is designed to securely erase data from a hard drive or storage medium in order to protect it from potential malicious activity. It works by overwriting the existing data on the drive with random characters so that it cannot be recovered using any kind of recovery program. The software can also be used to completely wipe a hard disk, removing all partitions and any installed programs. Different levels of security are offered depending on the data destruction software used; some offer full military-grade encryption while others provide basic, user-defined algorithms for smaller scale operations. Compare and read user reviews of the best Free Data Destruction software currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.

  • 1
    Secure Eraser

    Secure Eraser

    ASCOMP Software

    What is deleted from the hard drive is far from gone. As long as the data is not overwritten, anyone can make it visible again at any time. This is particularly problematic when a computer is resold or given away. Secure Eraser utilizes recognized methods for data deletion and overwrites confidential information so securely that it cannot be restored even with specialized software. But that's not all: Our award-winning solution for secure data destruction also removes cross-references that could allow conclusions about the former existence of the deleted files in the allocation tables of your hard drives. The very easy-to-use Windows software overwrites sensitive data up to 35 times - whether it's files, folders, drives, the recycle bin, or browsing traces. Even already deleted files can be securely erased afterwards. In addition to overwriting with random values, Secure Eraser adheres to the guidelines of the NIST SP 800-88 standard and supports all common proven standards.
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    Starting Price: $29.90 (lifetime-license)
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  • 2
    PrivaZer

    PrivaZer

    Goversoft

    One of the Best PC Cleaning Software – The Smart CCleaner Alternative PrivaZer is among the best PC cleaning software for users who demand more than basic cleanup. As a powerful CCleaner alternative, it delivers in-depth cleaning, privacy protection, and performance optimization for your PC and all storage devices. Smart Technology That Adapts to Your Hardware PrivaZer automatically recognizes your storage device type (HDD, SSD, USB drives, memory cards) and adapts its cleaning and erasure algorithms accordingly. This protects your hardware while maximizing performance and freeing up valuable disk space. Complete PC Cleanup & Privacy Protection Every time you use your PC—browsing the internet, watching videos, downloading files, installing software—you leave recoverable traces. PrivaZer performs deep cleanup to: Permanently erase sensitive traces Optimize system performance Free up disk space Protect your privacy Professional-Grade Tools for Everyone Home / work
    Starting Price: Free
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    ShredIt

    ShredIt

    Mireth Technology

    ShredIt is the file shredder/hard drive eraser that offers all the features you need to clean a hard drive, wipe a file, and more, as well as the ease of use and safety features you really want from an eraser app. Available for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Protect your privacy with this easy-to-use file shredder and hard drive eraser for macOS. Easy to use computer security eraser app that will wipe free space, erase hard drives, and more. Privacy app that erases data so it can’t be recovered. This is for users who need to dispose of confidential data on an ongoing basis and appreciate how easy ShredIt is to use, just drag the file onto the ShredIt icon and ShredIt File Shredder will wipe the file data so it can’t be recovered. Users who want to erase the contents of a hard drive before disposing of a computer can be confident that using ShredIt will accomplish the job. Step-by-step instructions will have you up and running in less than 15 minutes.
    Starting Price: $24.95 one-time payment
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    DeleteOnClick

    DeleteOnClick

    2BrightSparks

    DeleteOnClick is a very simple program that lets you securely delete files. DeleteOnClick is implemented as a Windows Shell Extension and not a stand-alone program. Securely deleted files are not moved to the recycle bin. For this reason, the program should be used with care. Any file can be securely deleted, except files that are being used by other programs. Completely deletes files in one click. Files are renamed to a random filename before being deleted. Files deleted using DeleteOnClick are permanently erased and can never be recovered. Renames files before they are deleted so that anyone trying to undelete cannot even see what the file was called. Can securely empty recycle bin. Wipes all file dates before wiping files and wipes file attributes before wiping the data. DeleteOnClick is compatible with Windows 10. DeleteOnClick follows the U.S. DOD 5220.22-M secure file deletion standard.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 5
    Active@ KillDisk

    Active@ KillDisk

    LSoft Technologies

    KillDisk Industrial Desktop brings a complete and affordable industrial-grade disk sanitation hardware solution to the consumer market. Highly customizable for any context, supporting U.S. DoD erasure and fully automated operation, this system is a must-have for any organization with strong disk erasure requirements. The licensing policy assumes no extra cost per disk erased. Disk Erase (disk's surface complete sanitation) for HDD, SSD, M.2 & USB disks. Support for 24 sanitation standards including US DoD 5220.22M and NIST 800-88. Erase verification, resume interrupted erase and disk hidden zones reset. High-performance parallel erasing of multiple disks at the same time. Supports PDF certificates & XML exports, emailing results, and reports customization. Displays and monitors health status for all disks based on S.M.A.R.T. info. Disk sectors and volumes can be inspected on a low level in the advanced disk viewer.
    Starting Price: $40 one-time payment
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    PC Shredder

    PC Shredder

    PC Shredder

    PC Shredder is one free data removal and file shredder software, that can permanently delete files, and folders and make them irrecoverable, completely shredding the files you specify, makes it impossible for anyone to restore deleted information. Prevent your business data, important documents, and personal information from being recovered. PC Shredder is freeware. It is free for both personal and commercial use. PC Shredder works on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, and Windows Vista. There is no minimum hardware requirement for PC Shredder to run properly. PC Shredder can save hard disk space and improve your computer's performance. PC Shredder uses 5 built-in delete file algorithms for overwriting file content to leave no chance to recover them. PC Shredder allows you to easily wipe free space to ensure that previously 'deleted' files cannot be recovered. Use PC Shredder to keep your PC secure and faithful.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 7
    Apeaksoft iPhone Eraser
    The program offers a 100% promise to securely erase all data on your iPhone/iPad/iPod, including contacts, SMS, account information, photos, browser history, videos, songs, games, weather, notes, emails, apps, voice memos, calendars, Apple Maps, reminders, voicemails, downloads, etc. Moreover, settings made on your device will also be clean to get a "new" device. Wipe out all content and settings on (locked) iPhone, iPad, or iPod permanently and protect your personal privacy safely. You are able to erase more than one iOS device simultaneously to save time greatly. As one of the professional phone data-erasing tools, iPhone Eraser guards your private information. It provides a 100% promise to securely remove all the data and settings from your device safely. No personal information will be tracked after you sell your phone. iPhone Eraser guards your private information and protects your personal data from data criminals.
    Starting Price: $19.96 one-time payment
  • 8
    Maacrorit Data Wiper
    Maacrorit Data Wiper uses a storage-overwriting process to overwrite the sectors on the device. The storage-overwriting process complies with United States government requirements for deleting sensitive user data, including US Department of Defense Directive 5220.22-M (DoD 5220.22-M). Supports all popular Windows file systems, FAT16/32, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, ReFS, Apple HFS+ and other file systems. Supports all Windows operating system including Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/ and Windows XP (32 and 64 bit). Completely and permanently wipe sensitive data on disk drive volumes or disk partitions. Unlimited Edition fully support to directly wipe disk drive or partition including system partition or disk drive. Many program files are stored in system disk drive by default. If you want to completely wipe disk drive to prevent your data from unauthorized using, this feature is necessary.
    Starting Price: $29.95 per month
  • 9
    Aiseesoft FoneEraser
    Aiseesoft FoneEraser is the most powerful utility to erase all iPhone content and settings permanently and thoroughly. Offered three erasing levels optionally, you are able to erase any data on iPhone/iPad/iPod to protect your privacy. Allowed to connect multiple iOS devices, you are capable to remove all files and settings on more than one device simultaneously to save your time. This professional software provides you three modes to clean iOS devices data. No matter you want to wipe out confidential documents on your job, or just common files in your life, you can choose one of the three levels to start your erasure. Low level: erase data quickly with overwriting only one time, which can save you time for plenty of data files. This powerful iPhone eraser also features the ability to clean up your full iPhone storage in seconds - freeing up loads of space.
    Starting Price: $15.96 per month
  • 10
    KakaSoft Free File Shredder
    Free File Shredder is designed to delete files quickly and safely. Using industry-standard file-erasing algorithms, the software can permanently delete files to ensure that they cannot be restored by data recovery software. Configure File Shredder to overwrite file data with random information up to 15 times, so it is practically impossible to recover the original data. With File Shredder, you can securely delete files and documents from your hard drive without fear that they could be recovered by data recovery software. There are quite a few software tools today for the retrieval of deleted files under Windows OS. Those tools often referred to as “file recovery” software, are taking advantage of the shortcoming of the Windows “delete” command that we all regularly use to delete files. Actually, the “delete” operation in Windows only removes bits of information from files, so they appear to have been deleted in the OS.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 11
    iShredder

    iShredder

    Protectstar

    iShredder™ deletes so securely with international security standards that ministries of defense and government agencies even use it. The app is equally suitable for beginners and professionals to delete data securely. Deletion report included. iShredder™ deletes so securely with international military security standards that defense departments and government agencies use the technology. For example, suppose you have deleted files such as documents or photos. In that case, this manually deleted data can be recovered from the device's free space until the data has been securely overwritten using deletion algorithms. With over 20 approved erasure algorithms, iShredder™ even exceeds international government and military security standards for secure data erasure. In addition, authorities and independent organizations have analyzed each deletion method for its security and to ensure safe data destruction.
    Starting Price: $7.90 per month
  • 12
    TweakNow SecureDelete
    TweakNow SecureDelete helps all files and folders in your PC, just add a file or folder to the list and securely delete them.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 13
    File Shredder

    File Shredder

    File Shredder

    With File Shredder you can remove files from your hard drive without fear they could be recovered. There are quite a few software tools today for the retrieval of deleted files under Windows OS. Those tools, often referred to as "file recovery" software, are taking advantage of shortcomings of the WIndows "delete" command that we all use regularly to delete files. Actually, the "delete" operation in Windows only removes bits of information from files so they appear deleted in OS. It is easy to retrieve those files using the aforementioned specialized file recovery software. In order to remove, or shred files permanently from your system you have to use a program that is capable of rewriting the files with random series of binary data multiple times. This process is often called shredding. That way, the actual content of the file has been overwritten and the possibilities to recover such a shredded file are mostly theoretical.
    Starting Price: Free
  • 14
    Remo Drive Wipe

    Remo Drive Wipe

    Remo Software

    Drive wiping is beneficial for data privacy since most delete functions don't really delete your data. When a file or folder is selected for deletion, the operating system designates those sectors that your files reside in to be re-writeable. However, using data recovery software those deleted files can be easily restored. Even if you have saved new data to your drive or reformatted it, there’s still a possibility that the partition can be rebuilt and files can be restored. Due to these selling or disposing of a PC creates a serious threat. If you haven't properly erased the disk, others can reopen and rebuild your personal data. Hence, Remo Drive Wipe erases the drive data permanently such that no recovery software could ever retrieve your data. Moreover, the tool is available free of cost.
  • 15
    DBAN

    DBAN

    DBAN

    Delete information stored on hard disk drives (HDDs, not SSDs) in PC laptops, desktops, or servers. Plus, remove viruses and spyware from Microsoft Windows installations. While DBAN is free to use, there’s no guarantee your data is completely sanitized across the entire drive. It cannot detect or erase SSDs and does not provide a certificate of data removal for auditing purposes or regulatory compliance. Hardware support (e.g. no RAID dismantling), customer support and software updates are not available using DBAN. If you are an enterprise that needs to erase data from SSDs or requires a certificate of erasure for compliance purposes, request your free Blancco Drive Eraser trial for enterprise organizations. DBAN is intended for individuals or home use to support data removal needs. For a comprehensive certified data erasure solution in companies and organizations, including reporting, Blancco is the recommended security solution.
  • 16
    CBL Data Shredder

    CBL Data Shredder

    CBL Data Recovery

    The CBL Data Shredder is intended to eliminate the chance that information stored on your hard drive may be retrieved by anyone when it, or the computer containing it, is disposed of. Our experience is that files thought to have been deleted years previously, containing personal details, bank account details, credit card numbers, correspondence, etc., can be recovered all too easily, and simply formatting the drive is not an effective means of rendering this data inaccessible. This situation is made worse by the availability of off-the-shelf products that will automate the recovery process in some cases. When used in accordance with the instructions in this guide, the CBL Data Shredder program will do what file deletion and partition formatting cannot: erase the entire contents of a treated hard drive, rendering them irretrievable to existing and future software-based recovery tools.
    Starting Price: Free
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