Bcwipe

Anyone here bought version 6.00 of Bcwipe or Total WipeOut? How is it?

 

I've used the trial of Total Wipe Out and it seemed to work fine. Was able to wipe the HPA and DCO, as well as the user areas. I didn't examine the disks afterwards, but I plan to...I just had a ton to do and wanted to get them all done.

I also bought BCWipe v5 and got the free upgrade to v6 (Auto Update). I tested the Beta of v6 and found some problems for Jetico. They said these were serious enough that they gave me a year extension for helping them. I haven't seen any problems with the release version. I just did a manual free space wipe of all disks upon install, and then just activated Transparent Wiping for everything after that. SSD Life still shows "Excellent" and I haven't seen any marked decrease in SSD life.

PD

 

Thanks for the review. Have the issues been solved now? In version 6 I mean.

 

They should be, but I didn't test the exact scenario again. What caused the problem was having Transparent Wiping activated, and then doing a manual wipe of a partition. It wiped out most of the files. You can test it for yourself by using a test partition on a USB drive. Put some folders and files on it, make sure Transparent Wiping is activated, and then right click on the drive and wipe it. If the files are unharmed, they fixed it. They said this was HUGE (it is!) and thanked me hard! It was Beta, so I was fine with it.

PD

Edit: So I just tested this on a 1 Gig USB drive with a bunch of files and folders on it: No problems, so it looks fixed.

 

hmmm no decrease in ssd life? is this a dream?, perhaps i shall give it a try now that it has been fixed tc user or not , i just like my deleted random data being overwritten with random data xD

p.s: pauly have you tried it on hidden tc volumes? if theres any problems?

 

Some programs do an incredible amount of deletes. You can enable the log for BCWipe, and after a few days hit the "Auto Configure" button. It will scan the log and tell you what has been deleting. If it isn't sensitive, you can exclude the program and save the SSD a little more. I think the MTBF on SSD's due to writes, is up to a constant 10-20 Terabytes a day, or something like that. I am nowhere close to that kind of activity, so I'm not worried about the wiping. I don't wipe the TC volumes...no need IMO, but you can.

PD

 

OK I finally got a license and transparent wiping does not work on SSD's Also it deleted my desktop icons but they came back on a reoot. I wonder what's up with that?

I'll do a review of Bcwipe and Total Wipe Out shortly.

 

well i thought id try it out just for fun but youre right afterall pauly lols , ever since i went tc thats all i need and dban since i dont mess with the hpa or dco or whatchamacallit and never had a bad block on my hdds guess im just lucky

 

What are you seeing that leads you to believe that? Here is me copying a 7MB software installer to the C:\ drive, and then deleting it to the Recycle Bin, and finally emptying the Recycle Bin - It renames and wipes:

No idea on the shortcuts, never seen that here.

Happy, spindle drives swap sectors transparently...you'll only get notified via SMART if they get excessive and are rising fast. So I'd wipe HPA and DCO if you are getting rid of the drive.

PD

 

A popup box says "Transparent wiping isn't available for SSD's" It's from BCwipe so I guess SSD's don't support that feature. All other features work though.

 

The above wipe was on an SSD. SSD's *are* a little different, and I seem to remember a pop up saying something like "SSD's operate differently but BCWipe will attempt to get rid of all the file info, but there might be some fragments here and there due to the technology". But it was just on first run. Can you post the exact wording? Trim helps in this regard as well.

PD

 

Is anyone here knowledgeable about details of NTFS $I30 files? Apparently the $I30 file retains details including file names, dates and file size of all files wiped by all file erasers, the sole exception being BCWipe 6 -- see: http://computer-forensics.sans.org/...tes-evidence-of-deleted-and-overwritten-files

The article comments in the paragraph just above Figure 1 that BCWipe doesn't overwrite the details in the $I30 file. However, in the subsequent reader comments section there is a comment by "Jetico Technical Team" dated August 03, 2012 to the effect that BCWipe 6 does overwrite the details of the $I30 file, (although apparently BCWipe 5 did not overwrite the details of the $I30 file). The authors of the article are apparently retesting BCWipe 6 to verify.

It might be that BCWipe 6 is the only file eraser that actually overwrites details of the $I30 file.

Can anyone here add additional information?

Does Jetico offer discounts to Wilders Security Forums members?

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I'm doing a review for both BCwipe and BCwipe Total Wipe Out. The kind folks at Jetico have offered a 10% discount, once I receive the code I'll let you know.

BTW if you buy BCwipe & Total Wipe Out you get a 25% discount. Well worth it since both products are top notch IMHO.

 

Many thanks ComputerSaysNo. But 90% of $39.95 (USD) is $35.96 (USD) which is too steep a price for the product's value to me. In particular, the alternative approach is a TC encrypted system partition, which might slow down high CPU/high memory applications just a bit; but I expect BCWipe transparent wiping would have a similar or greater effect.

I expect less expensive commercial, and/or freeware, wipers will be improved to overwrite the $I30 NTFS file sooner of later.

Regards.

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Here is the personal forensics blog of the author of the article who discovered the $I30 artifact "problem" with BCWipe, which according to BCWipe, they have "fixed" in Version 6. This guy knows his stuff and is good about posting about anti-forensics as well - Forensic Methods.

 

I personally would just buy BCwipe. The discounts are good if you choose 2 or 3 year license. To me the free file eraser's don't match up to BCwipe, I haven't seen one with the technology it has with transparent wiping. I recommend buying Total Wipe Out with it because it is THE BEST hard disk wiper available, DCO & AHO can be deleted with it. No other disk wiper can do that as far as I know. You get a good discount too for buying both. I'm no fanboi I just know when a product is worth the time and money.

If Bruce Scheiner likes it, it must be good and worth the $$$. I'll try and get that 10% discount to you all once the review is complete.

 

I just put the latest v6 on all my machines and haven't run into a problem yet. I activated Encrypted Swap, Transparent Wiping, and then did a Free Space Wipe with all options selected, on all SSD partitions. No problems. All clients are fine and it does seem that v6 is ready for prime time. The free space wipe generated 40 Gigs of writes to the SSD if I'm reading SSD Life correctly, so just do it once...after that, Transparent Wiping should cover you, and there is always Trim helping as well. I average 1-2 Gigs of writes per day during normal use, so you're only talking 20 to 40 days of "shortening" of the SSD life over the life of a drive.

PD

 

OK guys here is the code MXT24-E57UO-9IL3E thanks to Jetico 10% extra off. The offer is good for 10 days.

My review was very positive, once I tidy it up I'll post it here.