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Eraser by Heidi Computers Ltd. |
For total file security, I suggest you download this nugget as Eraser will delete your most sensitive files in a very complete way! |
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750k HERE! |
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Eraser by Heidi Computers Ltd. There may be many times when, as computer users, we find ourselves using files that we would consider "sensitive". These could be banking statements, work files or other bits of binary data that we would rather delete when we are done with them. Eraser by Sami Tolvanen will take those sensitive files and ensure that they will never be restored again. When you "delete" a file, it actually stays on your hard drive. Your computer just knows that it can use that area of the platter if it needs to. Delete doesn't actually get rid of the file, it just says "ignore that I'm here". The old DOS operating system had a utility called "undelete" which would find these deleted files and let you know that it MIGHT be possible to retreve it. Platform........ Windows 95, 98, 2000, Me, and XP!! Web Site.......... This site is very clean and easy to read. The fonts on my screen were of a "warm" color. The information is complete and includes a download hot spot, installation instructions, e-mail notification for updates, and releated files. Downloading........ Size zipped: 750k (.zip file) Size Installed: 1850k plus system files! This was a nice quick connection! One click will do it! Installation.......... The downloaded file is a .zip so you'll need an archiver for this (or be running XP!). The wizard is a newer issue and will direct you through the process; Agree to the EULA, pick a spot for it, and bingo, in it goes. I rebooted, but you don't have to! Help Files.......... There is a "readme.txt" file in the Eraser directory which give a good explaination of the program and install. "Eraser" itself has it's own standard help file system complete with a few screen shots using a basic windows help engine. There is where you can get a good explaination of exactly how Eraser works. It's very technical. Features........... Eraser allows itself to be accessed from many places on your computer. Right clicking on the icon in the toolbar brings a small menu for accessing the program. "Preferences" allows the user to acces the "General" settings and the "Erasing" settings. Here's a couple of pics of the general preferences and erasing preferences window to show you what each allows you to do:
Going to "Open" in the toolbar menu gives you a window which is a main listing area that allows you to drag and drop a file into it. Here, they will be listed until you choose to do something with them. Here's a pic of that window:
Eraser uses patterns from Peter Gutmann's paper "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory" to overwrite your data many times over, making it impossible to recover your most sensitive files and data. It also uses the US DoD 5220-22M and Pseudorandom Data method of deleting data. In fact, you can choose what system it uses for both files and open disk space. Here's a pic of the program in process and the final log of the erasing process:
Eraser also shows itself in your file manager, depending on which one you are running. Personally, I run Turbo Navigator and when I choose a file and right click it, the menu popup contains the simple word "Erase". This is a great way to access Eraser without opening up the listing screen. However, that's not all!!! Go up to your recycle bin on your desktop and click it! Now you have the option of Deleting or ERASING what's in there. This is absolutely excellent!! A great feature!! Does It Work........... Well, I certainly can say that it goes through the motions of working. Depending on how large the file is that you want to erase, it can take only a moment or a few minutes. I deleted an .mpg of The Three Stooges (Swinging to the Alphabet!) that was about 24 meg in size and it took almost 3 minutes to erase. I had the program set at the Guttmann setting (35 passes), so you should expect it to take a bit longer using this. I tried the same file at the US DoD 5520.22 M (3 passes) setting (Department of Defense I believe!) and it took only 15 seconds to erase. To be honest, I am not the foremost authority on deleting files using these methods however, if the government CAN decode my erased files, well....................... let's just say that they are not going to get any big surprises! It runs well and makes me feel a bit more secure when I do my finances. Problems......... None that I've experienced. Again, expect it to take longer at a more secure passing rate. In it's favor, I was able to use my other programs flawlessly without any problem from Eraser running in the background. Closing......... You're kidding right?! Hey, this is pricelessware ya know!! If you haven't downloaded this beauty and installed it, you just don't know what you're missing!
Enjoy Buzzy J
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