Photo by j. towbin
In our last post, we took a look at CCleaner as a way to automate the secure deletion of much of the “stuff” your computer accumulates as a result of browsing, editing documents, as well as files that Windows itself generates in day-to-day operation.
What if you want to securely erase or securely move specific files? The free utility Eraser from Heidi Computers Ltd. does just that. Let’s define what we mean.
By “secure,” we mean that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to recover files deleted using the methods that CCleaner and Eraser can be configured to use. Basically, configuring these utilities to use the US DoD 5220.22-M method will overwrite the area a file occupies on a hard drive with 3 passes of random data (not just overwriting with all “0’s” or all “1’s”). A person attempting to recover that file later would not know how “undelete” that file. If you like, you may configure Eraser to use the Guttman method, which overwrites a file 35 times.
Contrast this with insecure file deletion. When you delete a file to the Recycle bin, then empty the Recycle bin, at that time the file is logically deleted from the hard drive, but not physically deleted. Windows simply marks that file for deletion. So while your Recycle bin may be empty, there are a great number of utilities available which should be able to easily recover “deleted” files. CCleaner and Eraser can help you avoid that loss of privacy.
After installing Eraser, you will notice 2 new items in your context menu, Erase and Erase Secure Move. The first time you right-click on a file and choose “Erase,” you’ll want to click the “Options…” button in order to select the deletion method. The US DoD 5220.22-M 3-pass option should be sufficient.
You can use Eraser to simultaneously delete multiple files, folders or even unused drive space. For that last option, note that by default you’ll need to configure the “Unused disk space” deletion method on the Unused disk space tab of Eraser’s options.
“Erase Secure Move” is a useful way to copy files to a new location, then securely delete them from the original location. You might consider this when offloading image files from a digital camera’s memory chip.
Takeaway: Using Eraser for your on-demand secure file deletion, along with CCleaner to automate the secure clean-up of the day-to-day files that Windows accumulates, will go a long way in protecting your privacy and help your computer running smoothly. Not bad for free, eh?
Thank you so much for this article. I’ve been searching for something like this!
[...] want to copy this information to a secure place, then erase this copy. Present it to law enforcement authorities who can use this to track down and hopefully, [...]