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ERASER
What is Eraser?
Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and DOS.
Eraser is FREE software and its source code is released under GNU General Public License.

The patterns used for overwriting are based on Peter Gutmann's paper "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory" and they are selected to effectively remove magnetic remnants from the hard drive.

Other methods include the one defined in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual of the US Department of Defence and overwriting with pseudorandom data. You can also define your own overwriting methods.

Why use Eraser?
Most people have some data that they would rather not share with others - passwords, personal information, classified documents from work, financial records, self-written poems, the list can be continued forever.

Perhaps you have saved some of this information on your computer where it is conveniently at your reach, but when the time comes to remove the data from your hard disk, things get a bit more complicated and maintaining your privacy is not as simple as it may have seemed at first.

Download link

I believe you forgot this

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/eras ... p?download

It looks like a good program.

Yea I did forget to provide a link to download it.
I just added the link to my post.
I did better this time then i did the first time i tried to give info about free software in the forum.
The first time i didn't provide a link for spywareblaster.

Eraser shell extension "critical bug".
Seems to affect XP.Here's away to work around it.
We are looking into this issue but in the meantime you can resolve it by doing the following trying either or both of the following:
Go to Edit->Preferences->General
Turn 'Enable Background (slow) Entropy Polling' off i.e. do not put a tick in this field.

Manually remove the Eraser shell extension registry entries.
Also, if you have Norton Utilities installed, there could be a conflict with that. We suggest you uninstall Norton Utilities/Eraser and re-install the app. without the clean-sweep component.
There's also other bugs and eraser hasn't been updated for over a year,they haven't fixed the new bugs since v5.7 was created Aug.5,2003.

You can check the Eraser forum for more info, help or to report bugs.

Forum

Or the FAQ page.

FAQ

Here's a thing though.....
Removal of data from a hard disk is not entirely physically possible because of tiny vibrations which make the heads in the drive move over slightly different parts of the track each time they pass. Changes on the drive are physically 'wide' enough so that they can always be read back by the machine that wrote them... until one of these shredding programs comes along. After that it looks like your data is gone. It isn't.

If for some reason a law enforcement agency wanted to examine your hard drive they could still find fragments of the data you tried to remove as they have special equipment which can adjust the position of the heads in the drive so that they read the edges of the tracks - where data is less reliably written.... or erased.

Don't believe me? I'd recommend the chapters about hard disks in 'Upgrading & Repairing PCs' by Scott Mueller where all is revealed. Mr Mueller also points out that in criminal cases, evidence that a data shredding program has been used is often added to the case against you (in American courts). I thought that was questionable so I asked my wife (a lawyer) who tells me the same would be true in most European courts too. So folks, if you have data you'd like to hide .... by all means do so. Just don't do anything illegal.

Thanx for the info and warning.
What you did say about it being used against people in the US is true,cos i heard and read about a case where the person who was charged with a crime who used a overwriting program on there HD, it was used against them.The law enforcement agency who checked his HD didn't find out what was erased from his HD,But they did learn that he did use a program similar to eraser.

I'd recommend the chapters about hard disks in 'Upgrading & Repairing PCs' by Scott Mueller where all is revealed.
Can i get a link for that?
Where's it go if it isn't gone?
I've been using it for about a year.I thought it did what it said it did,completely remove whatever i erased from my HD.

Theres no need to panic as evidence of a programs use is not evidence of wrong doing and I am aware of using equipment to read the disks which once again cannot be used as evidence unless a large portion of the disk was previously blank, as the chances of finding a fragmented pattern of bytes is statistically astronomical , possible but improbable.
I always suggest using a disk cleaner with a military specification, as this will read and write to every section of the disk being erased multiple times and a good case could be had for proving any and every text can be found in the jumble..lol

I wasn't panicing , it doesn't really matter to me what they do in the US courts with ppl who use Eraser cos i live in Canada.
They do say in the help files.The best way to make sure no 1 gets any kind of info from ur HD is to burn it and destroy HD.
I think that's a little too extreme and paranoid to go to that length,unless ur a spy spying on other countrys or have classified TS documents on ur PC , then i would being destroying the HD.
The only classified docs i have are declassified docs from the FOIA and the leaked majestic 12 documents,but they are not on my PC.

quicksilver wrote:I always suggest using a disk cleaner with a military specification, as this will read and write to every section of the disk being erased multiple times and a good case could be had for proving any and every text can be found in the jumble..lol

I repeat - your existing hardware cannot destroy all your data unless you also have the necessary equipment to realign the heads in your drive. This is seriously expensive kit.

As for a link to the book by Scott Mueller.... I'd suggest http://www.amazon.com
Sometimes you still have to pick up a book.

I always suggest using a disk cleaner with a military specification, as this will read and write to every section of the disk being erased multiple times and a good case could be had for proving any and every text can be found in the jumble..lol

Are you talking about this method?
US DoD 5220-22.M
Eraser offers two overwriting methods that are based on the clearing and sanitization matrix in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM also known as US DoD 5220.22-M) of the US Department of Defense.

I repeat - your existing hardware cannot destroy all your data unless you also have the necessary equipment to realign the heads in your drive. This is seriously expensive kit.
Lost me there,i guess it talks about that in the book.

As for a link to the book by Scott Mueller....
I guess i'll have to go to the library and look for the book.

I,m a firm believer in the power of reading Rat

I am fully aware of the methods used to measure the change in magnetic flux upon a hard drives platter ,yes on paper its possible but I personally know of no case anywhere where evidence has been gained by this method that will stand up in court .
For that method to work also requires the data to be the first writing of data on that segment of the platter.
The only ppl who would go to such lengths to obtain anything from your drive are not the ones who would need its contents for evidence.

The old addage about if you gave a monkey a typewriter springs to mind , I,m sure if I looked closely at my harddrive it contains the secret recipe for coca cola and 3 new shakespeares sonets , Xor,ed of course