PARAGON Software GmbH Heinrich-von-Stephan-Str. 5c 79100 Freiburg, Germany Tel. +49 (0) 761 59018201 Fax +49 (0) 761 59018130 Internet www.paragon-software.com Email sales@paragon-software.com Disk Wiper™ 11 Personal User Manual Copyright© 1994-2011 Paragon Software Group. All rights reserved.
Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5 What’s New in Disk Wiper 11 ...................................................................................................................... 5 Product Components ............................................................................................................. 5 Features Overview................................................................
Scheduling .................................................................................................................................................17 Windows Components ........................................................................................................ 17 Interface Overview ....................................................................................................................................17 General Layout......................................................
Check Recovery Discs ............................................................................................................................................................ 46 Edit/View Sectors.................................................................................................................................................................. 46 Typical Scenarios .................................................................................................................
Introduction Data security nowadays is the burning issue not only for companies and government agencies, but rank and file people as well. Our personality is now fully embedded in computer technology.
Features Overview This chapter dwells upon key benefits and technical highlights of the product. Features Let us list some of the features: User Friendly Fault Minimizing Interface Graphical representation of the data to gain a better understanding. A handy Launcher to easily find and run the required tasks. Comprehensive wizards to simplify even the most complex operations. A context sensitive hint system for all functions of the program.
your hard disk directly to compact discs or burn ISO-images. The utility supports various formats of laser discs: CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R, DVD+R double layer, Blu-ray and can handle multi-session burning. Supported Data Erasure Algorithms Paragon's algorithm Custom algorithm To know more on the subject, please consult the Data Security Standards section.
Getting Started In this chapter you will find all the information necessary to get the product ready to use. Distribution Paragon Disk Wiper 11 is distributed in two ways: Boxed package from Paragon Software GmbH and resellers Downloadable package over the Internet at the company’s web-site Distributive CD The boxed package includes a distributive CD that is in fact a bootable environment with auto-run of the Windows installation, thus it can be used as a ready-made solution.
To register a new product If you are a registered user and would like to register Disk Wiper 11, please do the following: 1. Run an Internet browser and visit the page: www.paragon-software.com/my-account/; 2. In the Email field of the Authorization section, enter an E-mail used for registration; 3. In the Password field enter a password received after registration; 4. Click Sign in; 5. If the user name and password are valid, you will get to your account; 6.
- Windows XP (32 and 64 bit) - Windows Vista (32 and 64 bit) - Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit) Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher Intel Pentium CPU or its equivalent, with 300 MHz processor clock speed 128 MB of RAM (256+ recommended) Hard disk drive with 250 MB of available space SVGA video adapter and monitor Keyboard Mouse During the installation additional free space (up to 1GB) will be required.
there, the installation process will be interrupted. By clicking the Print button, the License Agreement may also be printed out. 4. Provide Registration Information. On the Registration page you are to provide your product key and serial number. 5. Provide Customer Information. On the Customer Information page you are to provide the standard information, i.e. a user name and an organization.
To know more on how to handle the product’s interface and accomplish typical operations, please consult the Windows Components chapter.
Wiping Media Builder can help you prepare our environment either on a CD/DVD disc or a thumb drive. To automatically boot from the wiping media please make sure the on-board BIOS is set up to boot from CD/USB first. 2. Launch a boot mode you need (Normal, Safe, Low-Graphics Safe) in the Boot menu. By default the Normal Mode will be automatically initiated after a 10 second idle period. 3. Click on the required operation to start.
Wipe Wizard (enables to destroy all on-disk information or only remnants of deleted files/directories); File Transfer Wizard (allows coping files/folders to another disk or a partition as well as recording them to CD/DVD); Log Saver (helps to collect and send the necessary log files to the Technical Support); Command Line (allows experienced users to execute any operation); Reboot the computer; Power off the computer.
Basic Concepts This chapter explains terms and ideas that show how the program works. To understand these helps to obtain a general notion of the operation performance and makes it easier for the user to operate the program. Data Sanitization Data security is a two-sided problem. It is to be made clear, that providing confidentiality implies not only information to be stored properly, but also be destroyed according to certain rules.
6. Russian GOST R 50739-95. Destroy information by a single pass with writing random characters into each sector byte; 7. Peter Gutmann's algorithm. A whopping 35 passes, with 27 random-order passes using specific patterns combined with eight passes using random patterns; 8. Bruce Schneier's algorithm. Two passes of specific patterns followed by five passes using a cryptographically secure pseudo-random sequence; 9. Paragon's algorithm.
allocation per user. A 64-bit processor can handle over 4 billion times more memory addresses than a 32-bit processor. With these resources, even a very large database can be cached in memory. Although many business applications run without problems on 32-bit systems, others have grown so complex that they use up the 4 GB memory limitation of a 32-bit address space. With this large amount of data, fewer memory resources are available to meet memory needs.
1. Main Menu 2. Tool Bar 3. Virtual Operations Bar 4. Common Tasks Bar 5. Explorer Bar 6. Disk Map 7. Legend Bar 8. Status Bar A number of panels offer similar functionality with a synchronized layout. The program enables to conceal some of them to simplify the interface management. All panels are separated by vertical and horizontal expandable sliders, allowing the user to customize the screen layout. Main Menu The Main Menu provides access to the entire functionality of the program.
Check Recovery Discs… Verify the wiping media for integrity and ability to boot from Settings...
Check File System Integrity… Check the selected partition for possible file system errors Edit/View Sectors… View/edit sectors of the selected partition Properties… Get in-depth information on the properties of selected partition View Layouts Manage the Launcher layout with several predefined profiles Toolbar Manage the Tool Bar representation: show / hide standard and navigation buttons, text labels and large icons Status Bar Display the Status Bar Common Tasks Bar Display the Common Tasks
BUTTON FUNCTIONALITY Cancel the last virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations Cancel the last undo virtual operation on the List of Pending Operations Display the List of Pending Operations Launch the real execution of virtual operations Cancel all virtual operations on the List of Pending Operations Virtual mode is an effective way of protection from any troubles, since no operations will be executed until clicking the Apply button for confirmation, thus giving a second chance to weigh all p
Disk Map The Disk Map is displayed in the Explorer Bar when the Disk View tab is selected. It is located either at the top or at the bottom of the window, depending on the state of the Disk Map Location option (Main Menu: View > Disk Map Location). As the name infers, the Disk Map displays the layout of physical and logical disks. Physical disks are represented with rectangle bars that contain small-sized bars. These small-sized bars represent logical disks.
Explorer Bar The Explorer Bar is located in the center of the main window which emphasizes its importance.
The program distinguishes between the following types of known file systems: - FAT16/32 - NTFS - Linux Ext2/3/4 - Linux ReiserFS - Apple HFS Status Bar This is the bottom part of the main window. The Status Bar displays menu hints, for each item the cursor points to. The user can hide (or show) the bar with the appropriate Main Menu item: View > Status Bar. Settings Overview The Settings dialog is available from the Main Menu: Tools > Settings.
- Vista. Since Windows Vista, operating systems do not use the archaic CHS (cylinder/head/sector) addressing scheme, but the Logical Block Addressing (LBA), where sectors are addressed continuously over the whole disk drive. It is optimal for both, 512B and new 4K disk drivers. - Inheritance. Select the option to disable automatic alignment of partitions. Check FS integrity policy. Accomplishment of any data-sensitive operation (resize, move, merge, redistribute, change cluster size, etc.
Wipe Report Options In this section you can specify contents and properties of generated wipe reports: System information. Mark the option to include a computer name, BIOS version and the used operating system. Hardware Information. Mark the option to include information on the used processor, disk drivers, network and USB adapters, etc. Bad blocks information. Mark the option to include information on the found bad blocks. Supervisor Approval.
way be possible to accomplish. The same goes for any copy hard disk/partition or restore hard disk/partition operation involving an extra upsizing. Virtual Mode Options In this section you may configure the virtual mode: Allow virtual mode. Mark the checkbox to enable the virtual mode. It is an effective way of protection from any troubles, since no operation will be executed until confirmation, thus giving you a second chance to weigh all pros and cons of this or that particular operation.
Viewing Disk Properties The main tool to view in-depth information on the properties of hard disks is the Disk Map. It represents the actual state of the computer’s hard disks. Generally the hard disks are represented on the map by rectangular bars, which also contain small-sized bars. The smallsized bars represent logical disks (partitions). When you select a large-sized bar, the Explorer Bar displays information about the disk in a bright, graphical form.
When you select a small-sized bar (i.e. corresponding to a logical disk) the Explorer Bar will display information on it as well. The page title will contain a drive letter, which is assigned to the disk. The disk layout graph will be colored in accordance with the volume ratio of the used space to the free space (the light colored sector).
Define whether the partition will be Primary, Extended or Logical. You can choose the desired partition type from the pull-down list. As a matter of fact, the available alternatives fundamentally depend on the selected block of free space - within the Logical free space, only Logical partitions can be created; Within the Primary free space, both Primary partitions or the Extended Partition can be created. Partition Size. Define the size (in Mb) of the new partition. Free space before.
Use OS built-in routine. Mark the option to restrict the available values according to the used OS. Whether the surface test will be performed. Define the level of the surface check to make the program find bad and unstable sectors and mark them unusable in the file system metadata. The amount of sectors per boot. This parameter is available exclusively for FAT16 and FAT32 file systems. Set the number of sectors to be reserved for the boot area on the partition with this spinner control.
There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject. Dialog Setup Initially the program suggests some consistent values for all parameters. In most cases, you can just press the Format button to confirm the operation. File system. From the pull-down list select the desired file system type.
Result After the operation is completed you receive a fully functional partition formatted to the specified file system. Deleting Partitions Dialog Startup In order to start the operation you should take the following steps: 1. Select a partition on the Disk Map; 2. Select in the Main Menu: Partition > Delete Partition. There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.
Specify the number of wiping passes. You can choose a number of passes for the wiping pattern. Verify wipe results. You can also choose whether to carry out residual data verification or not specifying the percentage of sectors to check. Result By default, the operation takes only a fraction of a second. However, the program waits until Windows completes the modification of the disk layout.
Wizard Setup The wizard offers the following steps to accomplish the operation: The hard disk/partition to wipe. Select a hard disk/partition the data of which you want to destroy. Wipe mode. This section enables to switch between two options: - Wipe out all data. Select the option to irreversibly destroy all on-disk data of the selected object. - Clear (wipe) free space. Select the option to destroy any remnants of deleted files/directories left on disk without affecting the used data.
The list of supported military and government standards may vary for your product. - In case you preferred to create a customized algorithm, the next page of the wizard enables to define up to 4 wiping patterns, number of passes for each wiping pattern and for the group of patterns. The Mask spinner control allows you to set a two-figure hexadecimal character value ("00" by default). The available range is from "00" to "FF".
Wizard Result After the operation is completed you can see a well informative summary page, providing structurally divided in-depth information on all the actions made in the wizard. The program also enables to store the resulted report. To do that, just press the Save button and choose the exact location in the opened dialog. To make sure that all on-disk data is irreversibly destroyed call the Disk Viewer dialog by clicking the appropriate tab and see it for yourself.
Available operation scenarios: Hard Disk Utilization Task Scheduling Automation of operations can really help you out when you’ve got to accomplish certain routine operations on a regular basis as it enables to execute them without your involvement while optimizing your computer’s work-load. Setting a Timetable Thanks to the embedded Scheduler, you can set a timetable for execution of any operation.
The Shutdown System on Complete option enables to automatically switch off the computer on the successful accomplishment of the operation.
3. In the opened dialog window you can see two tabs - General and Schedule. Click the General tab to modify: Full path to the macro-command program-interpreter, which describes the scheduled task; Command line for starting the interpreter (i.e. the task described in macro-language) Comments referring to the task The option of enabling/disabling the task. By clicking the Schedule tab you can modify the task timetable.
4. In the opened dialog enter the required task name and specify the task timetable; 5. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation. This command is unavailable if there are no operations on the List of Pending Operations. Extra Functionality This chapter describes the supplementary functionality available in the program. View Partition/Hard Disk Properties The program enables to obtain in-depth information on the properties of hard disks and partitions.
In the opened dialog information will be grouped according to its properties, thus by clicking tabs you can get information you need. File Transfer Wizard File Transfer Wizard is designed to make such operations as copying of separate files/directories or burning of them to CD/DVD as easy and convenient as possible. It may be of particular use in case of a system malfunction, caused either by a virus attack or files corruption, in order to get the system back on track again.
Object(s) of operation. Choose files/directories you want to copy and place them to Clipboard by pressing the Add button. To delete a file/directory from the Clipboard, select it in the Clipboard pane and press the Remove button. You can also create a new folder, rename or irreversibly delete existing files/directories of the left pane by pressing the appropriate buttons. Files/directories deleted from the Clipboard remain intact on source disks. Destination to store the object(s).
Result After the operation is completed the required data will be placed into the specified destination. Available operation scenarios: Copying of data from the corrupted system disk to another hard disk Burning of data from the corrupted system disk to CD/DVD Mount Partition The program enables to assign or remove drive letters of existing formatted partitions. Assign Drive Letter In order to mount a partition you should take the following steps: 1. Select a partition on the Disk Map. 2.
There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject. 3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation. Modifying drive letter of the system partition will result in inability to boot the operating system. After having processed partitions with installed software, some programs may not run properly.
3. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation. Check Recovery Discs You’ve got the ability to check whether bootable media created with the program is 100 percent error-free and ready to use. The Check Recovery Disc Wizard will help you do that. Startup In the Main Menu: select Tools > Check Recovery Discs… There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject.
Careless use of the Edit Sectors function may result in the irreversible data corruption. Typical Scenarios This chapter lists a number of the most frequently used scenarios that may be accomplished with the program. You can find here useful recommendations and descriptions of operations.
Wiping Media Builder can help you prepare our environment either on a CD/DVD disc or a thumb drive. To automatically boot from the wiping media please make sure the on-board BIOS is set up to boot from CD/USB first. 3. In the boot menu select Normal Mode to use the Linux environment (more preferable) or Safe Mode to use the PTS DOS environment (in case you’ve got problems with Linux).
8. On the Select Destination Type, choose the way the data will be stored. Select the Save data to any local drive or a network share item. 9. On the Select Destination Path page, select a hard disk to copy the data to by pressing the standard browse button [...]. 10. On the Transfer Summary page check all parameters of the operation. Click the Next button to accomplish the operation. 11. In the Progress window you can see in real-time a detailed report on all actions carried out by the program. 12.
Wiping Media Builder can help you prepare our environment either on a CD/DVD disc or a thumb drive. To automatically boot from the wiping media please make sure the on-board BIOS is set up to boot from CD/USB first. 2. In the boot menu select Normal Mode to use the Linux environment, since it’s the only mode that enables to burn CD/DVD discs. By default the Normal Mode will be automatically initiated after a 10 second idle period. 3. In the Linux launch menu select the File Transfer Wizard.
8. On the Choose a Recorder page, select a recorder from the list of available devices and then set a volume label by entering it in the appropriate field. 9. On the Transfer Summary page check all parameters of the operation. Click the Next button to accomplish the operation. 10. In the Progress window you can see in real-time a detailed report on all actions carried out by the program. 11. After the operation is completed, close the wizard by pressing the appropriate button. 12.
There are other ways to start up this function, please consult the Interface Overview chapter to know more on the subject. 2. On the Wizard's Welcome page, click the Next button. 3. Select a hard disk, the data of which you want to wipe out. 4. On the Wipe Mode page, select the wipe out all the data to irreversible destroy all on-disk information. 5.
7. Review all parameters of the operation and modify them if necessary. 8. Complete the wizard and then apply the pending changes. Troubleshooter Here you can find answers to the most frequently asked questions that might arise while using the program. 1. I try to run an operation, but the program claims my partition is in use and suggests restarting the computer. There are a number of operations that cannot be performed while your partition is in use (or locked in other words).
- The source or target disk you select is a dynamic disk; - 4 primary partitions (or three primary partitions and an extended one) already exist on the target disk. 5. I need to copy a partition. But when selecting a place where to make a copy, I always get a crossed circle sign no matter which partition is selected. The program enables to copy a partition only to a block of un-partitioned space.
- You don’t have permission to write to the selected backup destination. Glossary Active Partition is a partition from which an x86-based computer starts up. The active partition must be a primary partition on a basic disk. If you use Windows exclusively, the active partition can be the same as the system volume. In the DOS partitioning scheme, only primary partitions can be active due to limitations of the standard bootstrap.
- The starting records of the Partition Table; - The standard bootstrap code (or the initial code of boot managers, disk overlay software or boot viruses). Generally, the 0th sector is used for similar purposes in all existing partitioning schemes. The MBR capacity is not sufficient to contain sophisticated boot programs. That’s why the on-boot software is allowed to use the entire 0th track of the disk.
