Eraser

Download: Author’s Site

Deleting information off your hard drive using the simple delete function in windows is not secure. It’s possible for data to be recovered and pieced back together. If you store sensitive information on your hard drive and want to make sure it’s really erased properly you need additional software power. Eraser is a highly advanced freeware security tool that can completely delete sensitive data off your hard drive.
How it works

Instead of deleting a file once as windows would, Eraser removes sensitive data by deleting it several times using carefully selected patterns. The patterns used to overwrite files have been developed using Peter Gutmann’s research on memory and ensure that even the smallest magnetic reference to the data is completely removed from your hard drive. The program also makes it possible to define your own method; I didn’t give this a try and was quite satisfied with the default method.

Eraser Provides Three Easy Ways to Overwrite Data:

1. Drag and drop files to the on-demand eraser
2. Right click on an Explorer file extension and select erase from the popup menu
3. Use the integrated scheduler to overwrite unused disk space at a time you set

In Practice

The download and installation of the program is quick and easy, the program is backwards compatible with Windows and works with 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows 2003 Server and DOS – which is pretty impressive. It’s a good idea to setup the scheduler to run at a regular interval, perhaps once a month. Set it up to overwrite unused areas of your hard drive.