Re: Using Eraser with Windows re-install?
The answer is that you can use Eraser to remove pretty much anything from your drives, but what you will need to do depends on how much data you want to protect and how you assess the risks to that data. You also need to consider the fact that you can't erase your Windows installation while Windows is running Eraser! Fundamentally, however, there are three approaches.
Firstly, if you
know (1) that
all your sensitive or private data is contained within files you can identify and (2) that the intended recipient has limited or average computer skills, you may take the view that the easy option, of erasing just the sensitive files, will give you the security you need, and it can be done quite quickly and easily. But this carries the risk that you don't identify all the sensitive files, or that Windows has squirrelled away some sensitive data where it will probably not be seen, but you can't be sure once the machine is out of your possession. Personally, I'd not be comfortable with this approach.
Secondly, you could delete (or, if you are being more careful, erase) everything you can on the drives, uninstall (and delete the traces of) all programs you are not leaving on the machine, clear all temporary files and internet clutter (CCleaner has a wipe files option which is very useful for doing this), then wipe the free space. This will still leave Windows components (including the Registry and the Page file) plus residual application logs and cache files, which will contain some (probably fragmentary) user data. This is still not good enough for many people, because it is so difficult to be 100% sure that you have erased everything that matters.
The third approach is to use Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) to create a bootable disk (floppy or optical), from which you can erase both drives fully, and then, if you are feeling generous, reinstall the OS on the erased system drive before you give the machine away. This is the safest option, but will probably take several hours to run on each drive (as also, come to that, will clearing free space in Option 2). Another variant on this theme, if you have another computer, is to remove the drives from the old machine, put them in turn into a caddy connected to your other computer, and use Eraser to erase the contents of the root folder of the attached drive (i.e. everything), and then quick format the drive and erase all free space to be sure. This too is a lengthy process.
Of all these, provided you are happy with the technical aspects of DBAN (creating a boot disk, possibly changing the boot order in the BIOS etc.), that would be my personal choice for your need. Like Eraser, it's freeware, and is available
here. Once started, the process can be left to run, perhaps overnight. If, having looked at DBAN, you are not comfortable with it, my fallback would be the Eraser/caddy method, perhaps using a friend's machine if you don't have another one to hand. If you don't have a caddy, a basic one will cost you perhaps $30, and I find that it's always useful to have one around if you are building or reorganising systems. You will however need a caddy suitable for whichever type (IDE or SATA) of drive you are erasing.
To answer your other questions:
- all of these options leave your drives fully usable, though with DBAN I believe that they will need to be partitioned and formatted; the Windows installation will do this on the system drive (note that, with XP, if you are using SATA drives, you will need both a floppy drive on the machine and a SATA driver disk to use during the installation - a real pain, because you have to have the drivers to hand before you erase the disk!);
- as a useful by-product, successfully using Eraser or DBAN, which make substantial demands on the hard drive, will confirm that it is still in good order when you give it away; if it dies, it was probably not the ideal gift!
- anti-virus will not be running with DBAN. You don't need to remove or disable it to run Eraser, but, it may make sense to disable it for a long-running Eraser task, because Eraser effectively monopolises the hard drive and is in competition with other running programs for system resources; generally, it's best to run Eraser under option 2 when you have removed as much as possible, including security software, from the computer.
I hope that this answers your questions.
David
