In Computers, What is an Eraser?
In computers, an eraser is a term used to describe either a software program or hardware device intended to completely erase the contents of a hard drive. Using an eraser is the only real way to ensure data is removed from a hard drive, as simply formatting the drive leaves the option to recover a great deal of the information present. There are different levels of security for an eraser, with the most basic doing more than a simple format, but still leaving some possibility of reconstructing bits of data, and the most advanced destroying every shred of data on the drive. To understand why an eraser is important, it can be helpful to understand how hard drives store information, and what happens when you tell your computer to delete a file. Files are stored in bits across the drive, and when you open a file it checks to see where that file is stored, and reads it. Over time these files will become fragmented so they are spread out over the hard drive, but the hard drive can still find
