Secure Deletation Tool

[FluxGFX]

What are your recommendation team?

I have a few listed below

1. Eraser
2. Filebuddy
3. Evidence Eliminator ( no comments )
4. PGP file wipe
5. Norton File Whipe
..... any other utils.....
More interested in the freeware ones that will use Gutmann method.

Comments are welcomed and other suggestions are also welcomed :)

[FluxGFX]

Now upon reading further on the Gutmann way's
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html

Determinating a good and secure program to delete the data is hard to determine.

I've come across another program. East-Tec Eraser Pro
Seems to be working great. Unfortunately you need to buy this one *sigh*

[spy1]

Flux - Been using Eraser for years and totally happy with it. It does the job more than well enough and it's free (or donation-ware, if you get the latest iteration).

Old version (5.3): http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/download.shtml

New version: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ .

Read the specs on both. HTH Pete

[FluxGFX]

I'd like to use Eraser but it hangs my explorer.exe for some reason whenever I try to access it on demand or use the context menu it hangs explorer.exe causing it to restart.

[FluxGFX]

I've also sent them an email regarding this issue including system specs and whats running that current time wich was basic winxp sp1 nothing else loaded.

[nameless]

Don't expect much--I had the same shell hangs with Eraser, and told them months and months ago. No results to this day. (Yeah, I know it's freeware, but I did donate $20, because I'm a nitwit.)

Eraser also has a weird bug whereby it sometimes fails to delete certain files. I haven't figured out why this happens, or how to reproduce it, but I know for sure that it does happen--and often. I can give Eraser a command line telling it to remove the contents of a given directory, and sometimes it will leave a few files in there, untouched. Run the same type of command line with BCWipe (http://www.jetico.com/), and the files are all gone.

Yeah, I know the responses: "Eraser works fine for me." That's great. But these issues are real nonetheless.

[FluxGFX]

nameless yeah I know what you mean bro....

I'm not amusing myself with East-Tec Eraser 2004

[spy1]

Flux - Did you try both versions of Eraser? Or just one? I've read of cases where one of them wouldn't work on a given machine and the other would.

nameless - I don't use the "command-line" stuff - if something needs deleted, I use the right-click context menu to do so. FI, choosing "Select All" then right-clicking and choosing "Erase".

I've seen that fail, but ony because one or more of the files were in use. Once they're not in use anymore (FI, by closing down the program that's "using" them), Eraser worked fine.

Of course, I'd expect bcwipe to be the superior program (since you have to pay for it) - and besides, doesn't bcwipe use the "remove on re-boot" method, whereby the files get removed/erased upon re-start, where there's no chance for them being in use? (I use GiPo@MoveOnBoot ( http://www.gibinsoft.net/gipoutils/ ) for things that don't respond to the above, but then, of course, you have to go back and "Erase" freespace after that doing it that way). Pete

[FluxGFX]

{QUOTE-> quoting: spy1 link=board=20;threadid=22416;start=0#msg134434 date=1077460894]
Flux - Did you try both versions of Eraser? Or just one? I've read of cases where one of them wouldn't work on a given machine and the other would.

nameless - I don't use the "command-line" stuff - if something needs deleted, I use the right-click context menu to do so. FI, choosing "Select All" then right-clicking and choosing "Erase".

I've seen that fail, but ony because one or more of the files were in use. Once they're not in use anymore (FI, by closing down the program that's "using" them), Eraser worked fine.

Of course, I'd expect bcwipe to be the superior program (since you have to pay for it) - and besides, doesn't bcwipe use the "remove on re-boot" method, whereby the files get removed/erased upon re-start, where there's no chance for them being in use? (I use GiPo@MoveOnBoot ( http://www.gibinsoft.net/gipoutils/ ) for things that don't respond to the above, but then, of course, you have to go back and "Erase" freespace after that doing it that way). Pete
<-QUOTE}

Hey !

Yeah they both do the samething.

[nameless]

{QUOTE-> quoting: spy1 link=board=20;threadid=22416;start=0#msg134434 date=1077460894]nameless - I don't use the "command-line" stuff - if something needs deleted, I use the right-click context menu to do so. FI, choosing "Select All" then right-clicking and choosing "Erase".

I've seen that fail, but ony because one or more of the files were in use. Once they're not in use anymore (FI, by closing down the program that's "using" them), Eraser worked fine.

Of course, I'd expect bcwipe to be the superior program (since you have to pay for it) - and besides, doesn't bcwipe use the "remove on re-boot" method, whereby the files get removed/erased upon re-start, where there's no chance for them being in use? <-QUOTE}

I use the command line because there are some directories (like my email attachments directory, and my temp directory) which I securely delete the contents of very frequently. Doing it with the shell extension is out of the question. The command line I am using is correct; that isn't the problem.

The files that fail to be deleted are not in use. As just one example, the other day, a couple meaningless email attachments that have been lingering for days were overlooked by Eraser, while other ones were handled correctly. These files were not in use, and I'm not just guessing--I know they weren't in use.

BCWipe just works more reliably for me. I never use the option to securely delete after a reboot. I don't have to--it's like I said: I use Eraser, it doesn't always work, then I immediately use BCWipe afterward, and it does work. If I had been rebooting in between, I'd have mentioned that.

[AJohn]

Everything in Extreme Power Tools (radsoft.net) uses Gutmann's deletion :D

There are some pages on radsoft.net that say that most "secure file deleting programs" don't work and the standards they go by are meant for memory, not hard drives. One of the programs accused is evidence eliminator. There are some articles there on evedence eliminator that proove that this is true. One of them is about someone getting into some trouble and was using evidence eliminator, but the feds were able to find something like 200 files that it diddnt cover up right.

This guy doesn't like EE either:
http://evidence-eliminator-sucks.com/

It's fancy looking but I stay away from it, besides its extremely expensive for what it does.

I am generally Anti-Norton, but have not tried there deletion programs.

I use PGP wipe sometimes since I have PGP installed and it is easy to use, but im not sure how secure it is.

Have not tried any others...

[GlobalForce]

Of course, if you want to proof for yourselve's any concerns on how well all these different utilities actually work,
you'll need "CounterMeasures (http://www.e-evidence.info/vendors.html)".

GF

[Wayne - DiamondCS]

Try Jason's Cryptosuite (http://www.diamondcs.com.au/cryptosuite/) for advanced yet easy-to-use secure deletion :)

{QUOTE-> CryptoSuite's secure deletion algorithm consists of 5 wipes for each pass. The number of passes can be specified by the user when performing secure deletion.

Wipe 1 :- Fill with 0x00.
Wipe 2 :- Fill with either 0x55 or 0xAA. Randomly chosen which one to fill with.
Wipe 3 :- Fill with 0x55 if pass 2 was filled with 0xAA otherwise fill with 0xAA.
Wipe 4 :- Fill with 0xFF.
Wipe 5 :- Fill with random data.

The filename for the file is then overwritten 100 times with random characters. This ensures that the file data and filename cannot be recovered. <-QUOTE}

[Sweetie(*)(*)]

Hi, there is a free program called restoration "REST2514"
it is primarily a restore program, but you can delete the files it finds on your system, as well as washing the free space [ quite time consuming, best done overnight ].

The program is very small, and can be run off a floppy.

I believe it uses the Gutmann method of overwritting with 010 etc.

It can be found here http://files.webattack.com/localdl834/REST2514.EXE

[AJohn]

AnalogX has a program called SuperSchredder:
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/shred.htm

Looks ok to me.

Uses Gutmann BTW and is.. free :)

[Longboard]

Analog also offers intersting looking E-mail virus scanner and .dll cleaner.
As per AJ the precis of "secure" file deletion (or even deletation) at Radsoft is good reading especially the DOD/NIPSOM comments.

[Longboard]

Sorry, forgot; in reply to Wayne, why dont you guys offer the deletion tool as a separate app?