Eraser for ordinary deletion?

[jimmyg]

Hi,

When I delete files, I always delete them into the Recycle Bin and then use Eraser to delete them securely. I do this for all files I intend to delete regardless of whether or not I feel they need to be deleted securely. Is there any reason I shouldn't do this--like unnecessary wear-and-tear on the hard drive? Are there any benefits to using Eraser to delete files that have non-sensitive content? Or am I better off just using Eraser to delete sensitive files, doing non-Eraser deletes for everything else, and then doing periodic free-space wipes with Eraser?

Thanks for any advice and for a great program,

James

 

[Joel]

Is there any reason I shouldn't do this--like unnecessary wear-and-tear on the hard drive?

Nope, drives deal with continuous writes better than seeks. Usually the drives only get degraded more quickly by making the disk seek excessively. If you just use a continuous write it should be fine.

Are there any benefits to using Eraser to delete files that have non-sensitive content? Or am I better off just using Eraser to delete sensitive files, doing non-Eraser deletes for everything else, and then doing periodic free-space wipes with Eraser?

It really depends on you. Sometimes having undeleted files are good -- this mask the fact that you use Eraser (of course, if it's installed that's a dead giveaway) but there really isn't any harm in doing so. I'd suggest you do what you're most comfortable with, everyone's needs are different.