Future of Eraser in Jeopardy.

[kingkong23]

(Appologies if this is a bit spammy I'm trying to make as many people who use this program as aware as possible - hopefully the mods will not take offence).

I don't know how many people are familiar with the great windows security tool eraser: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser

Eraser allows you to securely delete files and wipe free space on Windows computers using various user selectable wiping patterns.

From reading the forums ( http://bbs.heidi.ie ) it would appear that the future of Eraser is in jeopardy. Unfortunately since Sami Tolvalen ( http://www.tolvanen.com ) stepped down as project lead the program has gone down hill.

Eraser was taken over by Heidi ( http://www.heidi.ie ) headed by Garrett Trant and quickly went down hill. While fixing some bugs, most releases under Heidi were marred by many bugs, some fatal where you would irreversible destroy your hard drive contents.

A few years later and we get to present day. Heidi seem no longer interested in the project. This leads us to the introduction of Joel ( http://joelsplace.sg/ ), a cocky 16 year old (weren't we all at that age) programmer. While he has quashed several bugs introduced by Heidi, it would appear that he has set his sites on taking over eraser for his own glory. He is quite rude and refuses to see listen to people who try correct his mistakes.

Joel is currently rewriting eraser (badly) in c# ( http://eraser.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/eraser/ ) , apparently learning the language as he goes along. Essentially Joels vision of eraser is bloating it out (requiring c# runtime libs to be installed before you can run eraser - does anyone remebber the fun of vb runtimes on win95?) into his own personal CCleaner ( http://www.ccleaner.com ). Adding features that other programs cover much better and essentially destroying the one thing Eraser does well. It will be a jack of all trades master of none.

The future of eraser under Joel is looking quite grim, he him self even says it is not looking good ( http://bbs.heidi.ie/viewtopic.php?t=4215 )

Eraser is in desperate need of help to keep the project running as well as preventing one singular person taking it in the direction they want.

What can you do:

- Help with improving the pure 5.x branch
- Donate to the project
- Fork the 5.x branch thus preserving the original program in all its glory.
- Go to the forums and register your interest in keeping eraser as simple as possible
- Spread the word that eraser project needs help

[Carver]

While this issue doesn't seem to be getting any responses here at wilders it is getting some responses at Truecrypt Forums http://forums.truecrypt.org/viewtopic.php?t=9618. Truecrypt and Eraser go hand in hand, they are Both for the purpose of keeping private stuff private to put it simply.

[firefox2008]

And here is what this cocky 16 year old looks like

http://joelsplace.sg/images/joel.jpg

[rookieman]

-{ Quote: "And here is what this cocky 16 year old looks like

http://joelsplace.sg/images/joel.jpg" }-
And RUDE he is!!!!In the right hands this would be a very good product.

[steve161]

On the other hand, this was an excellent product that, for some reason, was given over to a 16 year old kid. Maybe it's time has passed, or this fearsome looking kid is a visionary ( he looks like a young Mike Tyson)

[herbalist]

Regardless of what happens with the newer versions, 5.7 is excellent. If the newer versions aren't what they should be, use the old ones. 5.7 works well enough for me that I see no reason to try a newer one.
Rick

[LockBox]

-{ Quote: "Regardless of what happens with the newer versions, 5.7 is excellent. If the newer versions aren't what they should be, use the old ones. 5.7 works well enough for me that I see no reason to try a newer one.
Rick" }-

Bingo!

[EASTER]

Hard to believe but i agree, if it's no longer in RESPONSIBLE development rely on earlier version which are just peachy, let them go ahead if they want and throw it down to disgrace, it's their perogative if that's how they want their Legacy of this product to fall to now.

[AJohn]

You all need to have some faith and stop being so blind to this whole thing.

[Meriadoc]

Doesn't Eraser have a public license? Isn't it free software?

Anyone can come along as Joel has done and build on this project. Oh, but he's a 16yr old cocky teenager...and? By that age I had many programs under my belt, by 16 I had wrote a BASIC language for PCs. Joel's branch will shine or fall on his merits thats the deal here, I don't see anyone else stepping up to the plate at the moment and as herbalist says nothing wrong with using 5.7.

[Carver]

-{ Quote: "You all need to have some faith and stop being so blind to this whole thing." }- Agreed, is anyone here at Wilders aware of what happened after Sami Tolvalen steped down....NOTHING. Garrett Trant tookover. Total stagnation for months, then version 5.80 introduced a series of serious bugs. Then Overwriter came along and then Joel and in Two weeks issues finaly started to get sorted.

[n8chavez]

It's kind of strange how when I installed 5.7, of course after uninstaling 5.86a, I no longer had any compatability issues between Eraser and Dr Web (as described here (http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=188648&highlight=Eraser+problems)). Anyway, now Eraser is too bloated and overly dependent on runtime files. Thank goodness for 5.7. Just to be fair, and to say something nice about 5.86a, the context menu entries were better in the later releases.

[securitus]

I used version 5.5 (made by Sami) until last month, when I bought WinHex. Now I have no need for Eraser any longer. WinHex does the same job, better. Best of all, after erasing, you can check your disk with WinHex search function, to see that nothing "sensitive" is left. I first bought the standard WinHex, but then upgraded to the "Specialist" version, since that makes it possible to search for many words at the same time. To me, this was a very good investment! After running WinHex, I feel safe against prying eyes!8)

[HURST]

I'm using v5.85, no issues so far. Altough I haven't used any earlier version, so I can't really compare. I think eraser does it's job.

BTW, after reading this thread, I tooked a look into version history... not so much details on the latest version:

-{ Quote: "V5.85
Many Fixes - much input from J0el
V5.84
Vista version
Help system is converted to chm (contents and context help)
Standby feature in scheduler
wildcard support (c:\*\dir\...) in scheduler
Cleaned up application user interface
memory stick support - if it detects then use an ini file instead of registry


V5.83Beta
Fixed lots of little issues the main ones being:

*After unchecking all the "Erasing Report" inj the preferences dialog it seems Eraser (v5.8.2) still displays one Erasing Report dialog, this happens after erasing the recylce bin,
*In Windows explorer the key combo alt+f, m which should give you the system option to rename a file is being over ridden by "Eraser Secure Move".
......
....
" }-

[EASTER]

Well, contrary to some complaints i keep version 5.84 (Beautiful Installer) and also 5.86 and i have had no issues crop up from either. I even use one or the other to secure wipe SandboxIE's sandbox files and works to perfection.

So i really don't know why some attention is been raised at this point. I don't care if an 8 year old with a naturally gifted master IQ programs it so long as it works and #1, works without problems & #2 performs reliably and accomplishes what it was designed to do in the first place.

The results returned to my overview from daily use is yet to raise any cause for serious concern, but newer versions IMO are not that important to me because it "wipes" as expected and is compatible with my XP Pro system running along side a masterful collection of fine security apps.

[philebus]

5.86a is certainly buggy with Vista. The 32 bit version is less buggy than the 64 bit version. I'm running 64 bit Vista, but am using the 32 bit version of eraser.
BUT am looking around for another shredder, free or paid, cause I don't trust eraser anymore, not with vista.

Any ideas on a good shredder which is vista 64 bit compatible? Free or paid.

[EASTER]

The only decent shredder i found is ERASER, trouble is you have to try various older versions for the one that does work as expected for you.

So far, (knock on wood) no version is yet been a problem for me, then again i absolutely refuse to let it do a clean on my whole disk too.

I have ever only implimented ERASER for three purposes only: Single file/folder erasing, SandboxIE secure erase, and of course the 'ole Recycle Bin.

Probably why i never encountered any problems myself.

[herbalist]

I have no need of the "features" in the newer versions so there's no reason for me to replace 5.7. It works very well on both 2K and 98. I don't boot to 2K often enough to make use of its scheduler, but on my 98 box it's been erasing a long list of files, folders, and the free space for a couple of years. The launcher component (eraserl.exe) also makes a good "one click" browser cache cleaner.
Rick

[wat0114]

-{ Quote: " 5.7 is excellent. If the newer versions aren't what they should be, use the old ones. 5.7 works well enough for me that I see no reason to try a newer one.
Rick" }-

Ahh, yes, 5.7 is for me the "dog's bollocks" A classic if there ever was one :)

-{ Quote: "
I have ever only implimented ERASER for three purposes only: Single file/folder erasing, SandboxIE secure erase, and of course the 'ole Recycle Bin.

Probably why i never encountered any problems myself." }-

I use it the same way.

[n8chavez]

I used to use verion 5.82 when I was using Dr. Web. But that was only because there was some sort of compatability issue between Dr Web and the newest Eraser. But now that I no longer use Dr Web I use hte most recent version of Eraser and I have yet to experience any isses with it.

May I ask what adavatages version 5.7 has over any 5.8x version?

[EASTER]

ERASER is always been a very POWERFUL scrambler of data be they whatever files as well as folders.

If you make use of a HIPS, in my case EQS, you can actually watch the process as it walks you thru each file extension name change several times depending on ERASER settings to your preference, and then if you employ the services of a file recovery app to check the results, the ERASER erased file is nothing but a destroyed remnant.

And i might add, i even clean away those already destroyed remnants with a tiny app named RESTORATION to lighten the load from the disk that Windows has a habit of leaving space occupied with deleted files.

You clean those up too, and watch your PC performance go up a notch or two.