Eraser: A Complete Review (2024)

Eraser is a free data-destruction program that's able to wipe all the data off of an entire hard drive at once. Because it also can permanently delete individual files and folders as well,it's also a great free file-shredder program.

Eraser can be used to schedule data-wipe tasks and supports lots of sanitization methods, making it a great wayto evadefile-recovery programs.

More About Eraser

Eraser works by scheduling tasks to erase certain files. You can set up a task to run immediately after it has been created, manually, on every restart, or on a recurring daily, weekly, or monthlyschedule.

Eraser can use any of thesedata-sanitization methodsto securely remove data from a drive:

• DoD 5220.22-M
• ​AFSSI-5020
• AR 380-19
• RCMP TSSIT OPS-II
• HMG IS5
• VSITR
• GOST R 50739-95
• Gutmann
• Schneier
• Random Data
• First/Last 16KB Erasure

This version of Eraser supportsWindows 10, Windows 8,Windows 7,Windows Vista,Windows XP, and Windows Server 2012-2022. It also runs on Windows 11.

Eraser must be installed on your computer to use it.This means you can't erase your primary hard drive—the one that's running Windows.

For example, if you're using Eraser in Windows 8, you can't use it to remove all the Windows 8 files. For that, you must use a program that runsbeforethe operating system is launched. See our article on How to Wipe a Hard Drive for more on that.

However, youcanuse Eraser against an external drive, any other internal drive, or any single or group of files/folders.

Eraser Pros and Cons

There's a lot to like about Eraser:

Eraser has a simple design,and the task creator couldn't be easier to use. It's easy to change the default delete method, and you can clearly see how many passes each method will do when chosen.

These are all the data sources Eraser supports file, files in folders, Recycle Bin, unused disk space, secure move, and drive/partition. This means you can set up Eraser to securely empty the Recycle Bin every day, forexample, or to delete the files in yourDownloadsfolder on a schedule. Eraser even supports include/exclude masks for when you're deleting files within a folder so you canexplicitlydecide what gets shredded and what remains.

You can schedule multiple data sets—such as wiping the free space, deleting folders, and wiping a drive—to run at once on a designated schedule. That way, you don't need to make different scheduling sets for each task when you're planning on running them at the same time anyway.

When adding files and folder to the delete queue, you can drag and drop them directly into the program, which speeds up the process of selecting the data you want to delete.

My Thoughts on Eraser

Overall, Eraser has more useful features and supports more data sanitization methods than most other data destruction programs I've used. It should be your first pick if you're looking for a file shredder that doesn't run from a disc.

However, I recommend DBAN if you need to erase your primary hard drive (e.g., the C drive).