As a first in our Take-two Review series, we take a look
at a product I reviewed in the past and see if a newer version of the software
improves upon itself and in what ways.

Back in October of last year, I reviewed a Windows-based
low-level disk wiping tool called MediaTools
Wipe that takes the data on most any drive and entirely obliterates the
data, either with all zeros or with a randomly generated jumbled data stream.
Although the software managed to carry out the deadly deed of eviscerating all
traces of data contained within the drives I chose, there were several issues I
had with the way the UI handled itself, particularly on low resolution
displays.

Product Information

What’s new

Today, I revisit MediaTools Wipe to see what has changed in
the new release that followed since my last review. Starting with this new
version, MediaTools Wipe will be shipped on a USB dongle that can either be
installed and run within Windows or be booted straight from the BIOS, should
you need to scrape everything off your lone system disk, which can be useful if
you need to prepare a computer for sale for instance. For this review however,
I’ll be looking at the Windows build, but everything I mention here should
apply to the bootable environment as well.

After installing the software, one thing is immediately
apparent. MediaTools Wipe takes steps to prevent any accidental erasures of
drives that you might not want to touch. This is accomplished via a Drive Lock
dialog, where you can choose which drives you might not want to see in the
erase prep area. Once a drive is checked, it will be hidden from view until you
disable the lock, via the settings menu.

One of my initial pet peeves that I mentioned in my previous
review was the fact that the main application window was not designed well to
fit display resolutions of 1280×800 and lower. Fortunately, Prosoft addressed
this weakness by adding clickable triangular arrow buttons that will collapse a
portion of the interface if it isn’t being used. As you can see, the overall
screen real estate this application will consume is now much more reasonable,
and you will be able to reach and click the “start” button, located
in the bottom-right hand corner.

Finally, a rather welcome addition is the
“Multiwipe” option, located between the help and rescan buttons. When
you select this mode, a dialog box will show all connected drives, then you can
select as little or as many as you want, alter your wipe settings, and voila!
You are now able to wipe several drives simultaneously, versus processing each
individual drive one by one. Now, if Prosoft can integrate this mode right into
the main interface without having to pull up another separate window, it would
certainly take the cake.

Bottom line

Make no bones about it; Prosoft has listened to customer
feedback and made their premier secure disk erase software more useful and
easier to use. That being said, the asking price of $99is rather steep when
compared to other solutions, especially the likes of Darik’s Boot and Nuke,
which is available at no charge and is able to perform the same
government-grade wipe quality that MediaTools Wipe can provide.

Honestly, if the price was more like $10 or $15, I’d be able
to recommend this wholeheartedly, particularly if you prefer a GUI over a text
mode environment. Unfortunately, the price doubled since the last time this
software was reviewed. Because of this, I can’t see myself buying MediaTools
Wipe, and it’s a shame, because I liked the improvements I saw in the
software itself and I was hoping for a more reasonable price this go around.

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