Eraser 6.0.5.1114 (rc-5) Released

[Joel]

Hello,

I'm glad to announce the release of Eraser 6 Release Candidate 5. It contains fixes and a massive code review which will increase stability.

Read the full announcement and download it from there.

Joel

 

[Xanashi]

Hey Joel.

Thanks for all your hard work and the new RC!

I've been following Erasers progress on trac for quite some time now and was therefore very exited to see that RC5 was released today, BUT... sadly enough, after installing the new release, when I tried to run eraser, it crashed right away and I was left with this bug report:

Could not load file or assembly 'Eraser.Manager, Version=6.0.4.875, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=311f5aaf640c645d' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)

My OS is Vista Home Premium x64.

 

[Joel]

Did you restart your computer or close Eraser (from the system notification area) before starting the setup? Running versions of Eraser prevent certain files from being updated. The error you should be getting after installing should be a loss of your tasks (which we do properly handle)

Joel

 

[Xanashi]

I uninstalled Eraser RC4, restarted my computer and then installed RC5. I'm getting the "Eraser has stopped working" error, the second I'm executing the program. Any ideas?

 

[Xanashi]

Hey Joel.

I somehow managed to fix this problem, by uninstalling eraser, and then manually deleting all the remaining (old) entries of eraser in the registry.

However, I already have some new bugs to report :-/ (OS: Vista x64)

1. Eraser completely refuses to erase folders. When erasing a folder with files in it, Eraser deletes the content of the folder, but leaves the folder behind (Completed with errors). When erasing a empty folder, nothing happens (Completed with errors). First time I erased the content of my recycle bin, eraser discontinued the job after trying to erase an empty folder, leaving several files behind, but I was not able to reproduce this issue. When erasing empty folders in the recycle bin now, they are erased but completed with errors.

2. If I try to add a task manually in the Erase Schedule, I can't click the "add data" button without getting a "Unhandled exception" error.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentException: Value does not fall within the expected range.
   at Eraser.Util.VolumeInfo..ctor(String volumeId)
   at Eraser.Util.VolumeInfo.get_Volumes()
   at Eraser.TaskDataSelectionForm..ctor()
   at Eraser.TaskPropertiesForm.dataAdd_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

3. If I double click a task to see it's progress dialog, I can't close the progress dialog window again without canceling the task.

Sorry to report all this, right after the release

One last question: Is FAT erasure going to be implemented, it seems to be causing a lot of trouble?

Thanks again
Xanashi

 

[Carver]

Will there be a on demand section and a place where you can make up your own erase method and a shutdown option like in the 5.XX series. Last night I tried a freespace wipe. Eraser ran for about a minute then on the UI it said finished with errors. I wanted to findout why Eraser stoped so soon I right clicked on the line got a sub menu selected report clicked on that and the computer froze this happened twice in a row then I went to bed

 

[Joel]

Hi Xanashi,
I'll work on your comments and give you a reply in a second.

Hi Carver,
The Erase schedule is already an on-demand schedule. It is a schedule because Eraser will always run tasks sequentially in the order seen in the Eraser schedule, not becuse all tasks must be scheduled. Tasks can be "run immediately" which is akin to your on-demand tasks, or "recurring" which is the traditional scheduled tasks.

Hope that helps.
Joel

 

[Joel]

Hi Xanashi,

0. Yes you deleting the Eraser registry entries is the correct solution (for the record: only delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Eraser\Eraser 6\3460478d-ed1b-4ecc-96c9-2ca0e8500557\TaskList)
1. I'll investigate as part of #214
2. Can you please list your disk layout? Like, how many disks and how many partitions in each disk, what are you removable disks, dynamic drives etc.
3. You can close/dismiss the dialog by using the close button like closing a program. Perhaps I should implement a Hide button to make it more obvious.
4. FAT may not be implemented - I can't find an efficient way of doing it. The currently proposed method is VERY slow and space consuming. The v5 method won't work on Vista+

Don't worry about asking questions - this is why Eraser is still being developed because it isn't perfect! (and probably will never be)

Joel

 

[Joel]

I've implemented the Hide button in r1133

Joel

 

[Xanashi]

Hi Joel,

0. Thanks for the info, good to know.
1. I can see you have already solved this, Thanks ^_^ Looking forward to the next release.
2. Sure, let's see:

Disk 1 - 2 WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500 GB set up in a Raid 0, combined size 931 GB, NTFS, Internal, encrypted with truecrypt, for storage.
Disk 2 - WD RE WD2500YS 250 GB, NTFS, Internal, for installation of software.
Disk 3 - WD Raptor WD740ADFD 74 GB, NTFS, Internal, System Partition.
Disk 4 - Ipod 60 GB, FAT32, External, used as travel drive.

If you need any more info than that, please say so? It's a lot of disks and the way they are set up could probably be cause of many errors.

3. Actually I was using the standard close button, but it canceled the task anyway. But with the new Hide button this will not be problem any longer, Thanks!
4. That's a shame. As you can see, I still have an external FAT drive at my disposal and I use it a lot, when I travel around. Do you know if any of the competing "Sensitive data removal" softwares, have successfully implemented it? Not because I would convert away from Eraser (I'd rather give up using FAT), but to confirm that it is not possible to erase FAT in a efficient way in Vista.

Thanks for patiently answering all my question, It is really appreciated.

- Xanashi

 

[mcmaster76]

Hi,

Installed Eraser rc5 1114 on a clean fresh installation of Vista Ultimate 32-bit with all hardware and software drivers up-to-date. Wanted to do a quick freespace wipe so I ran a freespace wipe with cluster tips unchecked, using single-pass overwriting. Wipe completed without any errors but there were 48 of those gibberish files Eraser creates left at the root of the drive. Never had a problem like that with rc-4 (which I used a long time on my old windows installation) Only time it left those files was when Vista ran out of space and gave notices of it and back then all of those files were contained within a gibberish named folder like those filenames. They weren't all dumped in the root. Don't know if this is would be considered a bug or not but I just wanted to report it anyhow. What's your take on this ?

 

[Joel]

Hey Xanashi,

Disk 1 - 2 WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500 GB set up in a Raid 0, combined size 931 GB, NTFS, Internal, encrypted with truecrypt, for storage.
Disk 2 - WD RE WD2500YS 250 GB, NTFS, Internal, for installation of software.
Disk 3 - WD Raptor WD740ADFD 74 GB, NTFS, Internal, System Partition.
Disk 4 - Ipod 60 GB, FAT32, External, used as travel drive.

FOUND IT. and I'm gunna fix it right now. The key was that you had a TrueCrypt drive which kinda messed up the disk enumerating process.

3. Actually I was using the standard close button, but it canceled the task anyway. But with the new Hide button this will not be problem any longer, Thanks!

It's not supposed to cancel the task if you use the close button... perhaps there was an error?

4. That's a shame. As you can see, I still have an external FAT drive at my disposal and I use it a lot, when I travel around. Do you know if any of the competing "Sensitive data removal" softwares, have successfully implemented it? Not because I would convert away from Eraser (I'd rather give up using FAT), but to confirm that it is not possible to erase FAT in a efficient way in Vista.

I'm really not sure, perhaps you could recommend a program for me? I'm quite certain that Eraser's one of its kind in terms of it being open-source security software.

Thanks for patiently answering all my question, It is really appreciated.

My pleasure.

Joel

 

[Joel]

Hi,

Installed Eraser rc5 1114 on a clean fresh installation of Vista Ultimate 32-bit with all hardware and software drivers up-to-date. Wanted to do a quick freespace wipe so I ran a freespace wipe with cluster tips unchecked, using single-pass overwriting. Wipe completed without any errors but there were 48 of those gibberish files Eraser creates left at the root of the drive. Never had a problem like that with rc-4 (which I used a long time on my old windows installation) Only time it left those files was when Vista ran out of space and gave notices of it and back then all of those files were contained within a gibberish named folder like those filenames. They weren't all dumped in the root. Don't know if this is would be considered a bug or not but I just wanted to report it anyhow. What's your take on this ?

Yep its a bug - thanks for reporting. I didn't factor the code out properly, my bad!

Joel

 

[mcmaster76]

Another major bug: When in My Computer and I right click any drive it crashes Explorer with a C++ Runtime Error. I uninstalled Eraser and the problem went away. So I know it's caused by Eraser rc5.

 

[Joel]

Which version of Windows are you using?

Joel

 

[mcmaster76]

Vista Ultimate 32-bit as I mentioned earlier in my previous post on this thread.

 

[Joel]

I'll try that platform. I use Win7 64-bit and it works perfectly fine for me. RC4 and RC5 didn't have any changes in the shell extension code as far as I can tell, it should work in RC5 if it worked in RC4.

Joel

 

[Xanashi]

Hi Joel,

FOUND IT. and I'm gunna fix it right now. The key was that you had a TrueCrypt drive which kinda messed up the disk enumerating process.

Wauw, amazing speed! great job, Joel!

It's not supposed to cancel the task if you use the close button... perhaps there was an error?

Perhaps, unless it's exclusive to me...

I'm really not sure, perhaps you could recommend a program for me? I'm quite certain that Eraser's one of its kind in terms of it being open-source security software.

You got a point. I was a bit too fast with my statement. I was sure I had seen other freeware Secure deletion softwares, but that's the problem, they are only freeware and very outdated too.
I have last years edition of TuneUp Utilities installed, with an implemented eraser feature, that handles FAT32 file deletions very well, that's why the thought came to me in the first place, but not very helpful.

Two new bugs have been bothering me lately;

1. When I close Eraser in the system tray it sometimes gets stuck, leaving the process running, if I right-click it again the context menu and Eraser freezes complete.

2. After X numbers of hours Eraser crashes, for no apparent reason, with the crash error "Eraser has stopped working".

Thanks for all your hard work, Joel, I'm looking forward to the next release.

Xanashi

 

[Joel]

Another major bug: When in My Computer and I right click any drive it crashes Explorer with a C++ Runtime Error. I uninstalled Eraser and the problem went away. So I know it's caused by Eraser rc5.

Thanks for reporting, the bug was due to a flaw in the function declaration that only affected x86: the bug has been fixed in r1148.

Joel

 

[Joel]

I'm really not sure, perhaps you could recommend a program for me? I'm quite certain that Eraser's one of its kind in terms of it being open-source security software.

You got a point. I was a bit too fast with my statement. I was sure I had seen other freeware Secure deletion softwares, but that's the problem, they are only freeware and very outdated too.
I have last years edition of TuneUp Utilities installed, with an implemented eraser feature, that handles FAT32 file deletions very well, that's why the thought came to me in the first place, but not very helpful.

It's not that erasing the FAT isn't impossible - v5 can do it, but only after re-implementing a system function (that is, the FAT file system) which increases maintenance cost and runs the risk of corrupting the hard drive beyond repair. I didn't want to do this for v6 because re-implementing low-level functions are dangerous and especially since v6 is written in a way high-level language. I was, however, considering to reuse the v5 FAT erasure code, but it's a pretty large task.

1. When I close Eraser in the system tray it sometimes gets stuck, leaving the process running, if I right-click it again the context menu and Eraser freezes complete.

Is Eraser doing anything when you close the system tray? How long has Eraser been running, if you opened the main program before closing Eraser will it exit? Are tasks being run when you close Eraser?

2. After X numbers of hours Eraser crashes, for no apparent reason, with the crash error "Eraser has stopped working".

This has been fixed in r1132.

Joel