A
Anonymous
Guest
I posted this in the DBAN forums, but I thought I should put it here as well, the part which is relevant to the Eraser program.
Modified filewipe wish: wipe first 2k of files in a normal filesystem. (this may be a suggestion better for the Eraser windows program.) Since many files will not function when the first few bytes are altered, such as zip files, rar files, even documents such as word docs or excel files, most probably a quick kill function such as this may prove useful for the average user who is not super-duper-three letter org paranoid. I just want something that quickly nukes my drive or a directory (folder) in 10 seconds or something. I have actually created a small program to do this (one file at a time.) You zero out the first 2000 bytes of a wav, mov, mpeg, jpeg, avi, and most people will never be able to view it.
Variation filewipe wish: wipe every other 20k of the file or something like that. Same reasoning. Merely corrupts the file. What is this useful for? I don't want to spend time wiping my 700 megabyte mpeg, when I can just have it wipe the first cluster of every allocation group. What I mean is, for example, if the file is 700 megs, Eraser wipes the first 2000 bytes, then overwrites 2000 bytes every other 4 megs or something (the object is speed, not security, as I'm satisfied with 1 pass PRNG anyway.)
This also prevents RAR or ACE files from being recovered by their parity technology or recovery record feature. Same principle for streaming media like OGG or FLAC music files with checksums... I assume the same for DivX or XVid or MPEGs.
Some people like Gutmann 35, some people like 8 pass random, some people like 1 pass anything, and I like partial pass quickies. =) (well, its still better than regular delete to recycle bin eh, and I bet anyone interested in my hard drive will still find it extremely difficult to recover anything useful.
Modified filewipe wish: wipe first 2k of files in a normal filesystem. (this may be a suggestion better for the Eraser windows program.) Since many files will not function when the first few bytes are altered, such as zip files, rar files, even documents such as word docs or excel files, most probably a quick kill function such as this may prove useful for the average user who is not super-duper-three letter org paranoid. I just want something that quickly nukes my drive or a directory (folder) in 10 seconds or something. I have actually created a small program to do this (one file at a time.) You zero out the first 2000 bytes of a wav, mov, mpeg, jpeg, avi, and most people will never be able to view it.
Variation filewipe wish: wipe every other 20k of the file or something like that. Same reasoning. Merely corrupts the file. What is this useful for? I don't want to spend time wiping my 700 megabyte mpeg, when I can just have it wipe the first cluster of every allocation group. What I mean is, for example, if the file is 700 megs, Eraser wipes the first 2000 bytes, then overwrites 2000 bytes every other 4 megs or something (the object is speed, not security, as I'm satisfied with 1 pass PRNG anyway.)
This also prevents RAR or ACE files from being recovered by their parity technology or recovery record feature. Same principle for streaming media like OGG or FLAC music files with checksums... I assume the same for DivX or XVid or MPEGs.
Some people like Gutmann 35, some people like 8 pass random, some people like 1 pass anything, and I like partial pass quickies. =) (well, its still better than regular delete to recycle bin eh, and I bet anyone interested in my hard drive will still find it extremely difficult to recover anything useful.