Sure Delete 5.1.1

Sure Delete 5.1.1

Description by Software Developer:
"Sure Delete is our solution for wiping and removing bits of data left over on your hard drives from deleted files. If you think that when you delete a file, all the data that was in it is unrecoverable, think again. Sure Delete works in the Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP environments."

Softoogle's Review of Sure Delete 5.1.1
upd. September 5, 2006

This utility permanently deletes selected data on your hard drive. Supported file systems are FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS.

Once you install Sure Delete, you'll find that it actually consists of two tools: the first one is called File Cleaner and the second one is Disk Cleaner. Each of the tools must be launched separately, i.e. you cannot launch Disk Cleaner from File Cleaner or vice versa (which is not very convenient, of course). Yet another unconvenient fact you'll face after installing Sure Delete is that the shortcut it places on the desktop links to File Cleaner but there is no shortcut linking to Disk Cleaner; to run Disk Cleaner, you'll have to open the Sure Delete folder (by default, it's C:/Program Files/Sure Delete) and find the file named SD_Drive.exe (that's the Disk Cleaner tool).

To make things even worse, there is no Windows Explorer integration, i.e. Sure Delete does not add itself to the Windows Explorer context menu like many other similar applications do, which means you cannot erase a file or folder with Sure Delete by simply right-clicking on them and selecting something like "Surely delete with Sure Delete".

Yet another sad fact: there is no Help button in either of File Cleaner's or Disk Cleaner's interfaces, although the help file does silently sit in the Sure Delete folder.

To delete a file with Sure Delete, drag&drop the file into File Cleaner's window and press Next to select the method to be used for wiping. To wipe files securely, Sure Delete's File Cleaner tool uses three different methods: Quick Wipe - the quickest but the least secure method whereby the data being deleted is overwritten 4 times; DoD method - the data is overwritten 7 times; Super Secure - overwrites the data 24 times.

Note: Sure Delete requires VB6 RunTime library.