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 deletion 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 deletion 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 erasure 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 erasure 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 erasure runs check again whether everything has really been deleted.
Firmware based sanitization
toolstar®shredderWIN supports erasing hybrid HDD, SSD and NVMe storage media using on-disk erasure methods. These methods and their implementation are specified by the hard drive manufacturer and may differ from model to model. Hard drives that support such a method can be erased using the manufacturer's own procedure. This also deletes areas of a hard drive that could not otherwise be addressed. This is, for example, the cache memory of an SSD or NVMe. SecureErase and Enhanced SecureErase are the most common methods. To support you, our toolstar®shredderWIN has an automatic system that selects and carries out the best method. This means you don't have to worry about which standard is supported by which medium.
NOTE:
The firmware-based deletion methods cannot be carried out via the USB port due to technical limitations. Hard drives should always be connected via a native connection such as ATA or PCI (depending on the model) to achieve the best speed and use all functions. Additionally, the hard drive must be in an appropriate security state. A Unfreeze of the security functions cannot be carried out due to technical protective measures taken by Windows.
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.
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.
toolstar®shredderWIN supports current Windows PE environments. With a created Windows PE, you can also completely wipe 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
Sanitization in detail
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 erasure 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 deletes 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 deletion standard.
Deleting entire logical partitions deletes the entire contents of a partition. All national and international erasure 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 deletes 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 erasure standard.
NOTE:
You can delete all partitions that are recognized by Windows. These include, for example, NTFS, FAT, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS, VFAT, etc.
Available tests
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 6.07 | 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. |
| 6.06 | ADD | Automation: Added option to Message to user to abort the script on No/Cancel. |
| 6.06 | UPD | DDR5 SPD memory module types updated. |
| 6.06 | USE | From now on it is possible to store the signature fields in the protocols and certificates digitally in the settings. More information can be found here https://www.toolhouse.de/support/knowledgebase/unterschriften-als-bild-einbinden/ |
| 6.05 | ADD | New function for displaying the ACPI tables in the mainboard menu added. |
| 6.05 | ADD | New information within the PCI details about the extended capabilities of the bus and device. |
| 6.05 | UPD | Special customization for Crucial SATA SSD SMART rating. Especially for these types of hard drives, the SMART attribute is evaluated differently from the SMART standard, i.e. remaining lifespan percent. For more information about SMART attributes, see our knowledge base. |
| 6.05 | USE | Added option to optionally hide unsupported firmware-based deletion methods for protocols that do not support it. |
| 6.04 | ADD | NEW FUNCTION: Additional possible check when starting the program for certain data such as system names, MAC addresses and other information. |
| 6.04 | USE | Improvements to the output of logs and information to the screen when using the new fast display. |
| 6.04 | UPD | Update of the internal SPD-EEPROM database with new manufacturer data for current modules. |
| 6.04 | UPD | Proprietary implementation of DDR5 detection based on various hardware characteristics for the possible determination of speeds and sizes. |
| 6.04 | FIX | Adjustments in the PDF output to prevent a possible endless loop with a crash with very long lines of text and their wrapping behavior. |
| 6.04 | USE | Fix for a progress bar set as indeterminate. Under some circumstances this could not stop wandering at the end of the test and show incorrect progress. |
| 6.04 | FIX | Adjustments to messages sent via email for better compatibility with different email servers. |
| 6.04 | USE | If the option for HPA/DCO errors is not set as error, the output is no longer displayed prominently. |
| 6.04 | MOD | Changed wording for "not considered errors" HPA/DC errors for better understandability. |
| 6.04 | MOD | Firmware-based erasure method Sanitize Overwrite has been added to the prefabricated sequences and the 3 classic erasure runs that are always carried out have been replaced by the BSI-3 standard. |
| 6.03 | ADD | Erasure Certificate: Global option to save copy in another format. |
| 6.03 | FIX | Fixed crash when having problems with logo URL. |
| 6.03 | FIX | Shredder: Corrections to the (additional) output of certificates as XML or JSON in the results section (parsers may need to be adjusted). |
| 6.02 | USE | Test tiles can now be automatically hidden instead of just minimized. |
| 6.02 | UPD | Graphics Info: Adjustments to memory size output for sizes over 2GB. |
| 6.02 | UPD | New Linux image 2023-4 with new drivers and expanded system support. |
| 6.02 | USE | Burn-in test: Small progress bar when starting the script while creating a system overview. Overrides a possible white screen with a loading bar if the system overview takes longer to load. |
| 6.02 | MOD |
|
| 6.02 | MOD | Shredder: Option for "Error when no method can be performed" is now default (for new ini). |
| 6.02 | USE | Shredder (Tracelog): "Actual deletion method" is now called "Actual deletion method performed". |
| 6.02 | MOD | Shredder via homepage: Unnecessary additional message box removed. |
| 6.01 | FIX | Dialogs: Correction for possibly deactivated selections in a list. |
| 6.01 | FIX | E-Mail sending: No incorrect spaces at the beginning and end of the text if no prefix and/or postfix were entered. |
| 6.01 | FIX | Conditional text: Extension and fix of problems in the area of evaluating entered conditions. |
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.
