Harddrive?

[xxxzzz1]

When you Erase something with Eraser, does it completely remove the item from the entire Hard drive?

[DavidHB]

Short answer: yes. Was there a reason for the question?

David

[xxxzzz1]

So by using eraser you also save space on the computer since it removes the item from the entire. Computer.

[Joel]

Not really, you also reclaim space by deleting it. Eraser removes the remnants of the data that's left behind.

[DavidHB]

In case Joel's 'not really' is confusing, his point is that you save the same amount of space by erasing it as by deleting it.

I detect some misunderstanding about what Eraser does. It does not make space any more 'empty' that it was previously. What it does, as Joel says, is overwrite the data that would be left in the space marked as free if a file were only deleted. The space is still free, but there is no more of it than if the file had been deleted.

This is a simple explanation. There are complications relating to Restore Points and the like, but I won't go into those.

David

[Joel]

Re-reading it, I get what you mean by confusing; thanks for clarifying.

[xxxzzz1]

Thanks for the reply as I do online play through videos for youtube and the videos I produce remain on my computer and some of them can reach 1-2 GB's in size!!

So just say I made a video thats around 2 gigabytes in size and I erase that video file, I will reclaim the space completely that file took up on my hard drive right?

Only require a simple "Yes or No" answer please.

[Joel]

Yes, but then why erase it? Deleting it would work just as well, if you are not concerned about the residue which remains on your disk.

And by residue I mean data that can be recovered by forensic analysis, not that it is accessible by default any more.