Eraser

Eraser, from http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/, is a reliable (and well regarded) security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows 2003 Server and DOS. It is Free software and its source code is released under GNU General Public License.

6.0.10

Download the exe from http://eraser.heidi.ie/download.php. Run the exe, this unpacks the file in %temp%\eraserInstallBootstrapper\. Inside here will be three files, two of which are useful 'Eraser (x64).msi' and 'Eraser (x86).msi'. Save these file somewhere and install them l;ike any other msi e.g. msiexec /norestart /qn /i [path to msi file]. Once a copy of the msi has been made, quit the installer, the temp dir will then be removed.

6.0.x

Currently the 6.x series (6.0.8 so far) doesn't yet have a silent install option.

5.88

Available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/files/Eraser%205/5.8.8/

The uninstaller is a little ugly as it uses the appdata in the 'all users' directory, which means that although we're using Windows Environment Variables the uninstaller is still english language specific (please do update this page if you find a cleaner or more standard method).

When installing and upgrading, first uninstall Eraser 5.86a (InstallAware installer) first otherwise it remains in Add/Remove Programs as 'Eraser' and we get "eraser.exe - Entry Point Not Found - The procedure entry point ?IsProcessElevated@@YA_NPAX@Z could not be located in the dynamic link library Eraser.dll". No error code is given for the missing uninstaller hence we use IF EXIST.

<package
	id="eraser"
	name="Eraser"
	revision="7"
	reboot="false"
	priority="20">

	<check
		type="file"
		condition="exists"
		path="%PROGRAMFILES%\Eraser\eraser.exe" />

	<install
		cmd='cmd /c "IF EXIST "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\{A25FEDC1-F6D7-440C-BCE2-B71F595F6646}\EraserSetup32.exe" "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\{A25FEDC1-F6D7-440C-BCE2-B71F595F6646}\EraserSetup32.exe"" /s REMOVE=TRUE' />

	<install
		cmd='cmd /C "%SOFTWARE%\eraser\Eraser 5.8.8.exe" /SILENT /NORESTART' />

	<upgrade
		cmd='cmd /c "IF EXIST "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\{A25FEDC1-F6D7-440C-BCE2-B71F595F6646}\EraserSetup32.exe" "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\{A25FEDC1-F6D7-440C-BCE2-B71F595F6646}\EraserSetup32.exe"" /s REMOVE=TRUE' />

	<upgrade
		cmd='cmd /C "%SOFTWARE%\eraser\Eraser 5.8.8.exe" /SILENT /NORESTART' />

	<remove
		cmd="%PROGRAMFILES%\Eraser\unins000.exe /SILENT /LOG /NORESTART" />
</package>

5.86a

<package
	id="eraser"
	name="Eraser"
	revision="5"
	reboot="false"
	priority="3">

	<check
		type="file"
		condition="exists"
		path="%PROGRAMFILES%\Eraser\eraser.exe" />

	<install
		cmd="cmd /C %SOFTWARE%\eraser\EraserSetup32.exe /S" />

	<upgrade
		cmd="cmd /C %SOFTWARE%\eraser\EraserSetup32.exe /S" />

	<remove
		cmd='msiexec /uninstall %SOFTWARE%\eraser\EraserSetup32.msi /qn /norestart' />
</package>

An alternative package that may or may not be redundant

We had a few issues with this one. Versions from 5.84 onwards change installer from NSIS to Windows Installer. This script will uninstall any previous versions which use the old installer and then install the latest version (tested as working with 5.86a).