Erases data storage media irretrievably and in an audit-proof manner under Windows
- Windows application (32+64bit) for easy use. Also self-booting via your Windows PE. No installation necessary. Just start!
- Erases all data securely and irretrievably, whether HDD, SSD, NVMe, USB, SD card, etc.
- For PCs, servers, notebooks, tablets, mini PCs, IPCs and all other devices on which Windows starts.
- For HDD, SSD, NVMe, USB, SD cards, and much more.
- Meaningful protocols (txt/pdf/html/xml)
with serial numbers and encrypted sanitization certificates (pdf) to prove their work. Customizable with your logo and your own information. - Freely configurable and automatable! One tool for all your purposes.
- Erase multiple hard drives at the same time (In the standard edition* up to 4 at the same time).
- Save protocols and certificates locally and on the network or send them directly via email.
- Fulfills all major sanitization standards (BSI, DOD, HMG Infosec, US Army, etc.).
- Erases entire data carriers or individual partitions irretrievably and in an audit-proof manner.
Current version:
Your advantages
- Windows application (32+64bit) for easy use. Also self-booting via Windows PE.
- Erases all data securely and irretrievably. No matter whether a whole medium or individual partitions.
- For PCs, notebooks, servers, IPCs and all devices on which Windows starts.
- For HDD, SSD, NVMe, USB, SD cards, and much more.
- Meaningful protocols (txt/pdf/html/xml) with serial numbers and encrypted sanitization certificates (pdf) to prove their work. Customizable with your logo and personal information.
- Freely configurable and automated for your individual use. A software that can be adapted to all your needs.
- Erase multiple hard drives at the same time (In the standard edition* up to 4 at the same time).
- Fulfills all major sanitization standards (BSI, DOD, HMG Infosec, US Army, etc.).
- Delete and log in an audit-proof manner in one operation. All protocols and certificates can be created automatically if desired and saved locally or on the network. Sending by email is also possible.
- Additional separate sanitization certificates for each disk can be generated individually. Your proof of a successful and secure erasure of a data carrier or partition. Customizable with your company logo and customer information such as ticket number, customer number, etc.
- Save locally and on the network or send directly via email. And if you want, everything simultaneously and fully automated. The program adapts to you, not the other way around.
- Detailed system information with serial numbers of all hardware components such as CPU, memory, hard drives, motherboard, etc.
- Can boot from USB stick, DVD and via PXE within a WindowsPE environment.
- Deletes entire disks and individual partitions fully automated or manually for targeted sanitization of individual physical or logical media.
Legal provision
Today, hard drive data must be protected better than paper documents because they can be evaluated and copied even more easily - this also applies to disposal. In addition, the legislature has also required erasure in the Federal Data Protection Act since May 2001. The GDPR has further tightened the requirements. The toolstar®shredderWIN offers you the option of erasing data from hard drives and other media such as USB sticks, SD cards, RAID systems in an audit-proof and, above all, verifiable manner.
Who needs erase software?
toolstar®shredderWIN is important for anyone who wants to protect their data. In particular for those who are responsible for foreign data.
- Administrators, PC dealers, service technicians, system houses
- Remarketers, processors and IT brokers
- IT managers and managing directors
- Lawyers, doctors, tax advisors, authorities and anyone with sensitive personal data
- Private individuals
- Anyone who works with their own or foreign data
Supported sanitization standards
toolstar®shredderWIN supports a variety of different national and international erase standards. With our selection you are prepared for any eventuality. All supported standards and a short description of the standard in brackets can be found right here:
- BSI standard (3 runs)
- BSI / VS-ITR (7x write, 1x check)
- BSI-2011 (write, verify, ESE, verify)
- Dept. of Defense DoD 5220.22M short (3 runs)
- Dept. of Defense DoD 5220.22M expanded (7 runs)
- HMG Infosec standard 5, Lower standard (1 run)
- HMG Infosec Standard 5, higher standard (3 runs)
- Bruce-Schneier algorithm (7 runs)
- US Army AR380-19 (3 runs)
- US Air Force AFSSI 5020 (3 runs)
- Peter Gutmanns Methode (35 runs)
The most important terms:
BSI: Federal Office for Information Security (BSI homepage).
Dept. of Defense: Sanitization standard of the Department of Defense in the USA.
HMG: Defined Sanitization standard of the British government.
Runs: How often a medium is completely deleted (physically or logically).
Check: After all or individual erase runs check again whether everything has really been deleted.
Operating environments
With Windows running and installed
toolstar®shredderWIN can be started as an application without installation within Windows (32+64bit). All client editions (Vista – 10) and server editions (Server 2003 – Server 2019) are supported. With Windows (32+64bit) installed, you can easily delete all connected data storage devices such as HDDs, SSDs, SD cards, USB media, etc. and continue working in the meantime.
NOTE:
Erasing the system drive is not possible in an installed environment and is not offered by the program. This prevents you from accidentally deleting your own Windows operating system.
toolstar®shredderWIN supports current Windows PE environments. With a created Windows PE, you can also completely erase system drives. You can work with Windows PE on all devices that can boot Windows via USB or DVD. These include, for example, classic desktop PCs, tablets, IPCs, mini PCs, servers and Intel-based Macintosh devices. New T2 Macs can also be completely deleted using the toolstar®shredderWIN and a suitable Windows PE environment.
NOTE:
A usable Windows PE environment is not included in the scope of delivery for licensing reasons. However, this can easily be created using Windows on-board tools and without special programs. Windows PE reference: Go to Microsoft documentation
To circumvent the above-mentioned limitation and also delete entire system drives without an external boot medium, you can also run toolstar®shredderWIN within the Windows recovery environment. To do this, restart Windows and boot into the recovery environment. Within this environment, you run toolstar®shredderWIN from a USB stick and can then completely erase the system drive.
Sanitization in detail
Deleting entire logical partitions erases the entire contents of a partition. All national and international erase standards can be used. Using SecureErase or another manufacturer-specific procedure is not possible. After sanitization, you will still see the partition in Windows. toolstar®shredderWIN erases the contents of the partition but not the entries in the MBR or GPT. After sanitization, all data that was previously present in the partition is deleted and cannot be recovered. You can then reformat the partition in Windows and reinsert it.
After the logical medium has been deleted, only the last written pattern can be found on it, which is defined by the respective erase standard.
NOTE:
You can delete all partitions that are recognized by Windows. These include, for example, NTFS, FAT, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS, VFAT, etc.
When deleting entire physical hard drives such as HDD, SSD, NVMe, USB-HDD, USB stick, etc., the entire contents of the medium (boot sector, partitions, files, folders, backups, etc.) are overwritten. Depending on the erase standards selected (see above), the medium is overwritten with different patterns at different times. Once the process is complete and all certificates have been generated, no data that previously existed on the media can be recovered. toolstar®shredderWIN completely and irretrievably erases all sectors of the medium.
After the physical medium has been deleted, only the last written pattern can be found on it, which is defined by the respective erasure standard.
Verfügbare Tests und weitere Funktionen
toolstar®shredderWIN makes it possible to use toolstar®testWIN even without the test program some rudimentary tests for logical and physical disks, although not as extensive. Here is a list of tests you can run on logical and physical media:
NOTE:
With the definable scripts (duration tests/automation) you can combine the sanitization and testing of logical and physical media and run it automatically. If you need further testing options, you can take a look at toolstar®testWIN.
Fast reading benchmark
A quick reading test that uncovers any reading errors and access problems
SMART self-test
Manufacturer-specific internal test of the hard drive
Show partition table
Shows the partition table and information about the entries
SMART analysis
Shows all fitness attributes of the hard drive - manufacturer-specific scope
Pattern comparison
Searches for patterns on the disk and shows whether it has been deleted
Show sectors
Shows the contents of individual sectors on the media
Regular updates for your security
toolstar®shredderWIN is regularly provided with updates. These updates include adjustments to upcoming and old versions of Windows (32+64bit), improved detection of new and old hardware devices, bug fixes, user control improvements, and general changes and adjustments. Especially when it comes to sanitization software, it is important to always stay up to date. Even if you use old versions, you can be sure that all data has been completely deleted, but you are legally vulnerable if you do not use a current version. We therefore recommend that you update the software regularly and use all purchased updates.
NOTE:
You will receive the updates for your own download via our customer portal within the term of your license. You will be informed by email when an update is released and can then download it at any time. With each email you will receive brief instructions on how to install the update as well as information about the changes and improvements in the new version.
Do you have any questions?
Excerpt of the change log
Only the last 40 entries in the product history are displayed.
You can read the extended history in the customer portal under “Product History”.
| Version | Category | Changelog |
|---|---|---|
| 6.12a | ADD | Drives in automation, Benchmark and Read Test: Added options for required average and maximum speed in addition to minimum speed. |
| 6.12a | FIX | Further adaptions for Windows on ARM. |
| 6.12a | USE | PC&Tester Info, Comment Choices: Option per comment to only allow one entry to be selected; option what to focus afterwards: this or next input or button, or OK button. |
| 6.12a | USE | PCI info table: Optionally without numeric IDs. |
| 6.12a | FIX | Drives in Automation with hotplug waiting option: Space key was occupied by this even if a PC&Tester input per drive was active. |
| 6.12a | USE | The FTP upload settings now have a button to test the options entered. A test file is uploaded. Allows you to quickly validate information such as server, username or password. |
| 6.12a | FIX | Sending emails within automation: Fixed a crash with special identifier %R in the subject of an email. |
| 6.12a | USE | Automation with change of duration at start: Title during test and in the protocols showed old duration. |
| 6.12a | FIX | Fixed possible crash in the debug function area for listing dialog options. |
| 6.12a | USE | Fast Startup Page: Shift-Alt-D (for Debug level) now works here too. |
| 6.11 | USE | Shredder: For a directly selected NIST Purge, the output of the actual method wasn't nicely formatted. |
| 6.11 | FIX | Start via Starter with many command line parameters may have omitted some parameters. |
| 6.11 | MOD | Hardware monitoring: Increased previous maximum number of 16 temperature values due to CPUs with many cores with separate sensor values. |
| 6.10 | USE | If a tslog.txt is present at startup, it will be renamed to tslog_prev.txt and also offered for display |
| 6.10 | ADD | CPU info: Line with NPU added if available (devices with class ComputeAccelerator in the device manager). |
| 6.10 | FIX | Save as text: Fix for indentation for multi-line cells. |
| 6.10 | USE | The manual display of the results overview now has a red or green title depending on the status. |
| 6.10 | FIX | QuickCheck: Removed "not in demo" notice before script and group start. |
| 6.10 | MOD | Older methods replaced with more performant UI functions for screen size and number for better adaptation to different resolutions and more. |
| 6.10 | FIX | FTP upload: Spaces in URL could have caused errors. |
| 6.09 | UPD | Expansion of the PCI device database for Intel devices |
| 6.09 | USE | Automation: The activity indicator with the three squares was accidentally disabled befor the tests started. |
| 6.09 | USE | Erasure certificate: If the name contains no %H0, ?, or *, _???? will be appended to avoid unintentional overwriting. (Option to disable only in global settings dialog.) |
| 6.09 | USE | Text mode: Implemented the most common kinds of message boxes. |
| 6.09 | ADD | Shredder: User-defined method for writing sector numbers, previously only available by entering the value "s" or "S", now also offered in selection list (incl. default selection item "Sector number for disk size check"). |
| 6.09 | USE | Licence server password request: When Cancel is selected, the program exits now instead of endlessly repeating the password dialog. |
| 6.09 | MOD | SMART analysis: Attribute adaption for life left for CIE M models. |
| 6.09 | FIX | Automation: Fixed problem with %R in report name on repeated execution. |
| 6.09 | USE | Detection of x86 emulation on Windows on ARM (shown in CPU and Windows info). |
| 6.09 | USE | Added option start the main window maximized. |
| 6.09 | MOD | Minor change in the Starter so it runs properly on ARM Windows. |
| 6.07 | UPD | Added additional DMI dummy strings for automatic filtering during output |
| 6.07 | MOD | Reading tool ReadSticks expanded to be able to use USB SSDs as dongles |
| 6.06 | ADD | PCI Details: PCIe Extended Capabilities in Windows. |
| 6.06 | ADD | Mainboard: Added display of ACPI tables, optionally with contents dump. |
| 6.06 | UPD | SMART: Detection of Crucial SATA SSD attribute 202 as lifetime remaining percent. |
| 6.06 | USE | Shredder: Optionally hide "not supported" for firmware methods of other types (e.g. NVMe format for SCSI). |
| 6.06 | ADD | Program start, optionally checkin if certain data are missing: Optional output to file including system overview added. |
| 6.06 | FIX | SPD-EEPROM: Fix for timing calculations for DDR4. |
| 6.06 | FIX | Fast View: Fixed crash on USB Host Controller Info and overviews that contained it. |
System requirements
- Processor: at least 1 GHz, 32 or 64 bit
- Main memory: min. 50 MB free memory
- Internet access: Only necessary for the use of PLUS licenses.
- operating system: Windows from Vista / Server 2003 and current Windows PE/RE environment
NOTE:
These system requirements provide a rough guideline on which systems the program can run smoothly. toolstar®shredderWIN is also capable of operating on small embedded systems or mini PCs. The basic requirement is always an installed and running 32- or 64-bit Windows operating system or a specially created bootable version of Windows. PE or Windows RE.
