• Programs exist for removing data from your hard drive.hard drive interior image by Curtis Sorrentino from Fotolia.com
  
  While it is simple to delete information from your computer's hard drive, there are ways to recover the deleted information. The only way to be certain that information has been permanently wiped from your computer is to employ a specially designed data-erasure program. Computer users have several choices of programs, some offered for free, and some at a charge.
  
  

Active@ KillDisk

• Active@ KillDisk is available in both shareware and for-sale versions. The for-sale version meets standards of cleaning and sanitizing established by the United States Department of Defense. It meets 17 other security standards used in the U.S., Canada, Russia and Germany. Among the features of the newest version is the "New Wipe" function, which eliminates all data in the unused section of any drive, without touching any currently saved information.
  
  

Free Disk Wipe

• Free Disk Wipe is a shareware program available from The Undelete Company. The program operates by writing random information over previously deleted programs on the surface of the disk. Free Disk Wipe uses a military-grade data destruction process. This process involves a sequence of random numbers that are written over the original data files three times in a row.
  
  

WipeDrive

• WipeDrive is a drive-erasing program that comes in four versions, two for personal use and two for commercial use. All the versions work on both Macintosh and PC computers, meet standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense and can wipe all external media sources as well as hard drives. The two commercial versions of WipeDrive have the ability to wipe multiple computers at once and to wipe servers. If you purchase a site license, WipeDrive can develop a custom version of the program for your company.
  
  

Free Wipe Wizard

• Free Wipe Wizard is a shareware program that also provides military-grade security on your computer. Specifically, Free Wipe Wizard uses the U.S. government's seven-pass wiping procedure with a cryptographically strong sequence of numbers.
  
  

Blancco

• Blancco offers a large line of for-sale data-erasure programs used to erase PCs, servers and flash media. Blancco software is certified by the Polish International Security Agency, NATO, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Swedish Armed forces.