Best Free Secure Erase Utility

Mon, 04/14/2008 - 21:47 — j.brock

We’ve all heard the horror stories about someone buying a used hard drive at a flea market or garage sale and then finding tons of personal data left on the drive by the previous owner. Or even worse, people getting their credit trashed by ID thieves that make their living by taking that information and using it to wipe you out financially. “That would never happen to me” you say. “I’ll delete all the files first” or “I’ll re-format the drive before I trade it in or sell it.” Not so fast there Scooter! That data you think you erased is still stored on the drive.

When you delete a file it isn’t really removed from the disk. The operating system (OS) only removes the reference to the file from the file allocation table. This is like going into a book or magazine and removing a chapter reference from the table of contents. The actual chapter is still in the book. The only thing removed was the page number reference in the table of contents. With the file location reference removed the OS now sees that disk space as being available for use. However, the file content remains on the disk until another file is written over it.

Basically the same thing happens when you re-format a hard drive. Most of the data remains; the space on the drive is just made available to be written over.

The DOS and Windows file systems use groups of disk sectors, known as clusters, to store data. These clusters are of a fixed size which is normally determined by the size and number of partitions of the disk volume itself and the file system being used. If the data you’re storing requires less space than a full cluster, the entire cluster is still reserved. For example, you’ve saved a file that required 15.5 clusters of drive space. Because the OS can’t reserve a half cluster, the allocation table had to reserve 16 whole clusters for the file. That remaining half cluster that was not used may still contain data from a previous file. That unused half cluster is known as “slack space”. Data recovery programs can read slack space and retrieve the data stored there. Even worse, let’s say the file system places your 15.5 cluster file over the “unused” area of a deleted file that originally took up 35 clusters. More than half of the previous file would still be retrievable! You could have thousands of clusters on your hard drive (a.k.a free space) that contain data you thought was deleted! Scary thought, huh?

The only true and permanent way to make data irretrievable is to completely and utterly destroy the hard drive. That action is probably a little more severe than you or I need. We really only need to make sure we are protected from data recovery programs and the like. That’s where the programs in this category come into play.

To be as safe as possible, you must overwrite (erase) both slack space and free space. Also, the Windows swap file (a.k.a page file) could contain private data that you wouldn’t want to have fall into the wrong hands.

Eraser will securely erase selected files and folders, or even whole disks, located on your hard drive (it works with any drive, including IDE, SCSI and RAID, and CD-RWs). Eraser can overwrite the data area with your choice of a variety of random data patterns, and can also wipe data in the paging file, Internet cache, temporary files, Internet cookies, unused disk space, and a number of other places where data can secretly lurk. It can handle FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS partitions. Erasing files with a high level of security will always be a difficult and time consuming task, and absolute 100% safety cannot be guaranteed. However, Eraser makes the task about as easy as it can be, at a security level that exceeds most conceivable requirements.

If Eraser is overkill for your needs, try UltraShredder. In terms of secure deletion, it's not as comprehensive a solution as Eraser, but it's small, much easier to use, and will work from a USB flash drive.

A somewhat different alternative is Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN). It's used to construct a floppy disk or CD that will automatically wipe the hard drives of any PC that's booted from the disk. It's great for bulk disk cleaning of PCs, and is also useful as an emergency tool for quickly removing sensitive information. However, the power of this app makes it a dangerous tool in the hands of beginners.

Product Details

Eraser
Website: http://www.heidi.ie/node/6
Download link: http://www.heidi.ie/node/14
Author: Heidi Computers Ltd.
Version: 5.86a
Date: 01/09/2008
Download file size: 9MB
License: Freeware (GNU)
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/20003 Server/XP/Vista/DOS
64 Bit version available: Yes
Portable version available: Unknown
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No

UltraShredder
Website: http://www.xtort.net/xtort-software/ultrashredder/
Download link: http://www.xtort.net/xtort-software/ultrashredder/
Author: xtort.net software
Version: 4.5.4
Date: Unknown
Download file size: 213 KB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/20003 Server/XP/Vista/DOS
64 Bit version available: Unknown
Portable version available: Yes
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No

Darik's Boot and Nuke
Website: http://dban.sourceforge.net/
Download link: http://dban.sourceforge.net/
Author: Techway Services, Inc.
Version: 1.07
Date: 01/09/2008
Download file size: 2 MB
License: Free (Open Source)
Operating systems supported: All Windows/Linux
64 Bit version available: Unknown
Portable version available: Unknown
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor John Brock. Registered site vistors can contact John by clicking here.

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#1Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 10/08/2008 - 20:24.

there's a portable version of Eraser at PortableApps.com

#2Submitted by adamwright66 on Sun, 09/28/2008 - 11:13.

hi,

can somebody help me that why my eraser's version is 5.86.1 ,but when i was downloading it i thought the version is 5.86a ?
i tried to register and ask from hidi site but without result .

regards . adam

#3Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/20/2008 - 16:04.

Can you still store new files on your hardrive once the cleaning is done?

#4Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/20/2008 - 18:31.

Of course, what do you think, that secure deletion will create unallocated space (=unformated) ?

#5Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 09/19/2008 - 16:05.

Are you recommending Eraser to erase unused HDD space ? I wan't to get rid of System Restore left-over pieces.

#6Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/06/2008 - 01:19.

I need to know what is the best program to use to toltaly remove all unwanted files. I kid down loaded some porn and I want to remove it from my hard drive. I am on probation and If they come in and check my computer and find this crap I am up sh**s creek with out a pattle. Can you help me

mlctlc0@verizon.net

#7Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/20/2008 - 18:34.

Also try the parental section. Vista has a lot of parental controls bundled, try googling it.

#8Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/20/2008 - 18:32.

Try Eraser.

#9Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 04:48.

Ive tested many programs such as Eraser, bc wipe, windows washer etc. All up to date as of today 8/12/08. i use different options such as quick wipe, 3 pass wipe, 7 pass and was able to recover files using different consumer recovery programs such as file recovery , power data recovery etc. However, those recovery programs could not recover files shredded by "east tec eraser 2008". even the 3 pass (RLL) was sufficient enough for data to be unrecoverable with consumer recovery software. If you are really paranoid there is an option in east tec eraser to configure how you want it to erase your files. my buddy works for a computer company and has the hardware to recover data that can still recover files after being pass wiped 35 times. the default 35 gautman is ok but is still recoverable. I tweaked the settings to pass wipe 35 time with my own design and the hardware was unable to recover.

#10Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 07:00.

1) How did you configured "East Tec Eraser 2008" so that
a Hardware -Not Software- File Recovery was Impossible?

2) Can you, please, test R-Wipe&Clean 8.0
against your -Hardware- File Recovery method?

Thank you!

#11Submitted by JonathanT on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 10:15.

Were you able to see the names of the files you erased or did you actually recover it?

Thanks

#12Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 15:26.

what do you mean? some tests that i have done did not recover the file name but recovered the file. some recovery programs can recover the file and file name, depending on the level of wiping you use.

#13Submitted by JonathanT on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 07:26.

I've heard that in most cases even a one pass overwrite is enough, because there are many many files to recover so someone trying to recover it will have to know what to look for.

#14Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 04:42.

all they would have to do is run the software recovery or use hardware to recover all raw data that can possibly be read from a drive, then let the software put it all together to be readable. It just depends on the technology being used to recover.

I have an old 30gb hard drive that i have been using from 2002 till feb 08. I know i have formatted it, reinstalled windows at least 4 times a year and used it heavily. I decided to recover as much as i could. when the recovery was done there was over 200gb of data that was available for recovery. I recovered and saw alot of .docs that was dated 2003 that i thought was deleted. There were a bunch of personal pictures, alot of it was web temp files and cache. cached pictures of websites i used to browse.

I did 3 pass wipe on the drive and was still able to recover roughly 150gb and some files were unreadable or the jpgs would only show the top half of the picture. but the most recent files were still intact.

did the 7 pass, still able to recover, then went to the 35 pass and jpgs were no longer recovered but a few documents were still readable. did another 35 pass wipe and i could not recover anything.

So , when someone wants to retrieve information from your HD all they have to do is recover everything possible and then look over all recovered files as if they were browsing on your computer.

#15Submitted by JonathanT on Sat, 08/16/2008 - 05:35.

Thanks for the information. But what I don't get is why you'll need more than one 35 pass, wouldn't they be over writing the exact same files with the exact same method?

Thanks

#16Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/30/2008 - 09:24.

BCWipe is my favoured application - it wipes free space, file slacks and the swap file (and you can choose which of these options to activate). It includes the Guttman recommended method (35 wipes - although this will obviously be VERY time consuming with large/relatively empty drives), and the DOD 7 wipe system. You can also set it up for a quick single wipe (or N wipes). I can't fault it, and I think it's available for most flavours of Windows (haven't checked for Vista) and linux.

Peter

#17Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 07/26/2008 - 23:38.

What if you install Ubuntu 8.04 on a Windows PC, reformatting the entire drive? Do older Windows files survive that?

#18Submitted by JPBanks on Sat, 07/26/2008 - 19:22.

How does defragging a drive affect free space, slack space and deleted files?

#19Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/28/2008 - 12:44.

The process of defragging simply means that the existing files are consolidated on disk so as to minimize the number of non-consecutive locations on disk are occupied by the same file. Ideally, each file would be located in physically contiguous sectors on the disk.

When this occurs, the amount of total free space on disk is maximized, and the amount of slack is minimized. Slack cannot be ever 100% eliminated unless all files and folders occupy a multiple of the exact number of bytes in each sector of the drive.

And since the files can now be read and written with a minimum number of "moves" of the disk read/write head, the system throughput is optimized.

And one last benefit - a file which is less fragmented on the disk is easier to recover in the event you need to do so.

And one last drawback - after you defrag, you will not be able to recover deleted files, as it is likely that the physical sectors those deleted files occupied are now re-used by a different file. Gone for good and ever, as we say...

#20Submitted by akrk1986 on Sat, 07/26/2008 - 06:44.

Another option is the AXCrypt program that is mainly used to encrypt/decrypt files, but also has a secure delete ("shred") option.

Website: http://www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/
Download Link: http://www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/Downloads.html
Author: Axantum Software AB
Version: 1.6.4.4
Date: July 2008
Download file size: 1.4 MB
License: Free (Open Source)
Operating systems supported: Windows 2000, 2003, XP and Vista
64 Bit version available: No (regular version runs on 64-bit, but not the shell extension part)
Portable version available: No
Other languages supported: Spanish & French manual available. I have not checked whether program itself provides non-English menus
Additional software required: No

#21Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 05:44.

I recently got annoyed at some reappearing files. I uninstalled Office, and all the files came back. Then I just deleted them all since the uninstall was gone. They all came back! But then I set Crap Cleaner at Gutmann 35 pass secure file deletion, I deleted those files again to the Recycle Bin, and set Crap Cleaner to cleaning out the recycling bin. Come back, files no more!

Also, Glary Utilities has an option to wipe free space in its file shredder.

The JKDefragGUI has a washer as well.

#22Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 07/08/2008 - 21:21.

All of these will only erase a formatted volume NTFS partition in Windows XP/Vista.

I would like a utility that will secure erase a phyiscal volume, and not just limited to logical volumes (NTFS partitions) that I have already deleted in Windows Disk Management.

DBAN can do physical volumes, but what about a windows utility that can erase a external usb drive that is connected without rebooting.

I found one called Active KillDisk but it requires booting DOS from a floppy...
http://www.killdisk.com/features.htm

Many notebooks no longer come with floppy drives, and many are now omitting optical DVD drives as well.
Guess I have to create a bootable USB thumb? Its ok i guess, but still a bit of a hassle. :(

Anybody know of one that runs in windows without rebooting?

Thanks.

#23Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 00:52.

Will using the Recovery CD Rom that came originally with the computer wipe everything out? including free space? shortcuts? filenames? history etc? and leave the computer like a new one? SydAnon

#24Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 06/12/2008 - 16:03.

Only way to know for sure is to read the documentation that came with the recovery CD. Look on the PC website too. My guess, and its only a guess, is one of two things will happen. It will either re-load original files on top of the existing files or it will format and do a "clean" re-load. If the first one happens all your added data and shortcuts will probably be there when finished. Some of your added software may not work if updated system files were written over by older versions. You'd have to re-load the non-working application to fix that problem. If the second one happens you'll definitely have to re-load all applications and any data and shortcuts you added would be gone too (well, not really gone, but you'd have to use a recovery program to try and get them back as best you could.)

#25Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 06/15/2008 - 01:34.

Many thanks! much appreciated.

#26Submitted by JonathanT on Sun, 06/15/2008 - 06:16.

Well, to be on the safe side so you don't have to guess, you can just get Darik's Boot and Nuke.

#27Submitted by pcophinas on Sat, 06/21/2008 - 07:59.

File Shredder 2.0 [ http://www.fileshredder.org ]

Advantages over Eraser:

1) Lighter than Eraser (only 1.15 MB).

2) Erases shortcuts (Eraser does Not).

3) Allows the user to continue to work while erasing
(Eraser Freezes any PC activity until it erases everything).

4) Erases Files/Folders
at -Different Locations-
and
at the -Same Time-.

For example, File Shredder 2.0 can erase
one File/Folder in Hard Disk C:\
and
one File/Folder in Hard Disk D:\
Both at the SAME Time!

Eraser canNOT do this!

#28Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 06:52.

The problem with eraser programs is that they do not erase file names, which could cause problems for many people. The files are erased, but the file names are left behind.

#29Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 06:04.

not if you scramble them

#30Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 06:50.

Eraser causes right-click problems. I got rid of it a long time ago.

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