is Dban the same as Eraser

[ahmed.taleb@csiro.au]

Hello 8) ,

Does Eraser meet the following process :?:

To sanitise media from IN-CONFIDENCE to UNCLASSIFIED:
1. Overwrite the entire media with a character/bit pattern;
2. Verify that all areas of the media have been overwritten with a character/bit pattern;
3. Overwrite the entire media with a bit-wise complement/inverse of the character/bit pattern;
4. Verify that all areas of the media have been overwritten with a bit-wise complement of the character/bit pattern; and
5. Overwrite the entire media with random data.
To sanitise media from IN-CONFIDENCE to IN-CONFIDENCE or higher, the media will be formatted.

If so, could you please point me in the right direction to where i can see this in writing. We are currently using DBan at work to erase our disk though i often enough come accross disk that are not in a machine and i would find it easier to plug into a caddy and erase via my windows machine.

Thanks

Kind Regards,
Ahmed

 

[DavidHB]

I'm sorry, I hadn't seen this post when I replied to your PM. It helps if you don't double-post, as that creates confusion.

Eraser and DBAN do not do the same job. DBAN, which has its own minimal OS, is for sanitising complete systems; it can (and usually will) erase everything it finds. Eraser only erases what the user tells it to erase. Also, because it runs under Windows, Eraser cannot erase the OS or any files protected by Windows. But it can wipe a newly formatted non-system drive. It can also provide an additional layer of security, by erasing some or all files on the target drive before it is formatted, so that data of particular concern is dealt with more fully. The Eraser team are also planning to implement a feature in which a non system drive is wiped in a single operation, so saving you the job of formatting it first.

To sanitise media from IN-CONFIDENCE to UNCLASSIFIED ...

Eraser provides no assurance of conformity with local rules about what constitutes sanitisation; nor does DBAN. Eraser does provide documented wiping methods that have been authorised for use (usually with quite strict conditions) by certain national security authorities. But Eraser is not, and does not claim to be, an approved product. Nor does DBAN.

Overwrite the entire media with a character/bit pattern

Eraser will do this; you can specify the pattern (or a file set) to be used for overwriting.

Verify that all areas of the media have been overwritten with a character/bit pattern

Eraser does not do this; nor does DBAN. A better and more practical form of verification is to attempt to recover files using a suitable file recovery program.

Overwrite the entire media with a bit-wise complement/inverse of the character/bit pattern

Eraser will do this; the pattern can be user specified, or a suitable predefined method may be available, depending on the user requirement.

Verify that all areas of the media have been overwritten with a bit-wise complement of the character/bit pattern

See my earlier answer.

Overwrite the entire media with random data.

If the media is a non system disk, and has been newly formatted, using Eraser to wipe the free space does this by default.

could you please point me in the right direction to where I can see this in writing.

Eraser Help, accessible from within the program, provides full information on the available erasing methods. The Help is in PDF format, so can be separately saved and copied.

I think that the bottom line here is that if whatever bureaucracy you work for is happy for to use DBAN, it ought to be happy for to use Eraser. Unfortunately, bureaucracies don't always work that way.

David