dErase is a tiny app designed for one purpose only, to delete files and/or directories with optional secure deletion routines. It can also fill a drive’s free space with garbage data in order to force-overwrite any “deleted” (yet still there) data on the disk. dErase can also be scripted.
What makes the dErase files different from standard delete utilities, is that it will ignore file system ownership/permissions entirely while deleting, getting around access denied and similar errors that could come from deleting other user’s files, system files, or even malware related files.
dErase v3.0 is a re-release of the last dErase v2.1, now re-written in d7x platform code and coming with some behavioral changes as well.
The first of two main differences is in how you delete an entire partition, which now requires two steps in comparison to the old behavior of one step. First you enter the drive letter and a colon in the file or directory selection and Erase that, then you choose the option to overwrite free space on that drive and perform that as a second step. This also applies to command line usage, in that your first command is to delete the [driveletter and colon]|[number of passes], and then the second “/f=[driveletter and colon]” command to overwrite free space on that partition.
The second main difference is that one secure pass in previous versions would overwrite each file 7 times with different data before renaming and deleting it, now one secure pass overwrites each file only 3 times with different data before renaming and deleting it. This is because complete delete operations can take a long time and this gives you more flexibility in using the number of secure passes with the end result being that number (x3) instead of (x7).
dErase is free for personal and commercial usage.
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