Eraser cleaner for Windowsthat allows you to perform a secure wipe and completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive, overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.
Eraser is a Windows-focused cleaner that is currently supported by Windows XP (with Service Pack 3), Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 2), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7,8, 10, and Windows Server 2012.
The secure drive erasure methods it uses offer immediate usability. It erases files, folders, and their respective counterparts. It works with a highly customizable scheduler.
Why is using a hard drive cleaner important?
Many people underestimate the importance of this process, which is critical, especially if they are throwing away an old hard drive or selling something that contains a hard drive (e.g. an old laptop or desktop computer).
Your first thought might be that when you "delete" a file, the data is gone. But that's not true; when you delete a file, the operating system doesn't actually remove the file from the disk. It only removes the reference to the file from the file system table.
The file remains on the disk until another file is created on it, and even after that, it would be possible to recover data by studying the magnetic fields on the disk surface.
Before the file is overwritten, anyone can easily recover it through disk maintenance or using an undelete utility.
This is why it is important to clean hard drives properly before parting with them (whether we are going to throw them away, recycle them, or sell them).
Methods for securely erasing hard drive data
Pseudorandom data, 1 Pass, the fastest cleaning program. Your data is replaced with random data.
British HMG IS5 (Baseline), 1 Pass, your data is overwritten with zeros.
Russian GOST P50739-95, 2 Passes, the GOST P50739-95 cleaning program first replaces data with zeros and then with random data.
British HMG IS5 (Enhanced), 3 Passes, is a three-phase replacement algorithm: first phase – with zeros, second phase – with ones and the last phase with random data.
US Army AR380-19, 3 Passes, AR380-19 is a data sanitization program created and published by the U.S. Army. AR380-19 is a three-phase algorithm: first phase – with random data, second with random byte, and third with the 2nd pass's complement.
US Department of Defense DoD 5220.22-M (E), 3 Passes, DoD 5220.22-M (E) is a three-phase substitution algorithm: first – with zeros, second – with ones, and last – with the complement of the second phase.
US Air Force 5020, 3 Passes, US Air Force 5020 is a three-phase replacement algorithm, with the first being a random byte, followed by two phases of padding data.
US Department of Defense DoD 5220.22-M(ECE), 7 Passes, DoD 5220.22-M (ECE) is a seven-phase algorithm: first, fourth, and fifth with a random byte, second and sixth with zeros, and third and seventh with random data.
Canadian RCMP TSSIT OPS-II, 7 Passes, RCMP TSSIT OPS-II is a seven-phase replacement algorithm with three alternating patterns of zeros and ones and the last, with a random byte.
German VSITR, 7 Passes, data is replaced with three alternating patterns of zeros and ones and the last phase with random data.
Schneier's Algorithm, 7 Passes, Bruce Schneier's algorithm has seven phases: first – with aces, second – with zeros, and then five times with random data.
