Eraser is an
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
tool available for the
Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
.
It supports both file and volume wiping.
Eraser securely erases data by overwriting it such that the data is
irrecoverable.
It supports a variety of data destruction standards, including British
HMG IS5 (Infosec Standard 5), American
DoD 5220.22-M
The National Industrial Security Program, or NISP, is the nominal authority in the United States for managing the needs of private industry to access classified information.
The NISP was established in 1993 by Executive Order 12829. The National ...
, and the
Gutmann method
The Gutmann method is an algorithm for securely erasing the contents of computer hard disk drives, such as files. Devised by Peter Gutmann and Colin Plumb and presented in the paper ''Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory' ...
which features a 35-pass overwrite.
The tool has been recommended in ''
TechAdvisor ''Tech Advisor'', previously known as ''PC Advisor'', is a consumer tech website and digital magazine published by Foundry,. Foundry was previously a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG, Inc.), which was acquired by Blackstone in 2021, but i ...
'',
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'',
and ''
PC World
''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online-only publication.
It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tec ...
'',
and is a tool suggested by the United States government
Computer Emergency Readiness Team.
See also
*
BleachBit
*
CCleaner
CCleaner (; originally meaning "Crap Cleaner"), developed by Piriform Software, is a Utility software, utility used to clean potentially unwanted files and invalid Windows Registry entries from a computer. It is one of the longest-established s ...
*
Data erasure
Data erasure (sometimes referred to as data clearing, data wiping, or data destruction) is a software-based method of data sanitization that aims to completely destroy all electronic data residing on a hard disk drive or other digital media by ...
*
Shred (Unix)
is a command on Unix-like operating systems that can be used to securely delete files and devices so that it is extremely difficult to recover them, even with specialized hardware and technology; assuming recovery is possible at all, which is ...
References
External links
Official websiteDocumentation
Data erasure software
2003 software
Utilities for Windows
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