Can't get Wipedrive to work

[ukserendipity]

Ok, so decided to wipe the drive on our laptop before selling it. It is a Packard Bell R1000 with a 50gb drive, so not a lot to wipe. I had Windows 7 on it, but formatted the drive before wiping so I could use the Windows 7 disc on another computer.

Anyway - have burned the cd booted from it, entered all the codes to activate it, selected what wipe I want and it just goes to a screen which says 'Please wait as drives are prepared for wiping' - and it just sits like that for hours with nothing happening. Done it twice now and the same thing. Have contacted White Canyon but no response. I know I could use dban before anyone suggests it, but have paid for this now so want to use it! So what is going wrong?

 

[ukserendipity]

Oh great. Thought I'd try again after formatting the drive in case it didn't work on an unformatted drive - and when I go to activate again I am told I have used up all three licences! And haven't even wiped anything.

 

[ukserendipity]

Thanks for that. Am in the Uk so don't fancy making an expensive call though. I have emailed them and asked for a refund. Am now wiping with dban which is going very smoothly. Hope I get my refund - no idea why it didn't work but it should have!

 

[ukserendipity]

I've used dban before, but read somewhere recently that it didn't wipe all areas of the disc and wipedrive was more secure. Dban will have to do - it's only so I don't get my credit card numbers stolen or identity theft or something.

 

[ukserendipity]

Ok - well White Canyon emailed me back and said they were happy to give a refund - then I asked why it hadn't worked and they passed me on to someone who emailed me through it. Basically the latest version didn't work with my 'legacy' hardware, so they sent me another download to burn, which is now working. So yes, they are helpful, but 24 hours after I first contacted them! Meanwhile I have wiped with Dban, reloaded Windows 7, reformatted, installed windows 7 without the updates, then wiped the clean drive space with CCleaner, and now doing the Wipedrive - so I guess it should be ok to sell now!