Wipe free space

[GoFigureItOut]

Just out of curiosity, I wanted to wipe free space on my hard drive. I decided to use CCleaner since it was already installed onto my PC. During the progress, I noticed the amount of free space was shrinking. 344 GB had went down to 160 GB, so I panicked and stopped the process! I am assuming that the completion of wiping free space meant it would go down to 0 GB. After it's done, the space is returned, right?

 

[DRDNA]

yes that's how it goes.

 

[Ahhzz]

most "wipers" write random, or preset data, or both, until all the "free" space is filled up on your drive, and then deletes it again

 

[GoFigureItOut]

most "wipers" write random, or preset data, or both, until all the "free" space is filled up on your drive, and then deletes it again

Oh, okay. Thanks! So, basically I panicked for nothing! I'm curious as to why you said "wipers"? Does that mean these programs don't really delete deleted data efficiently?

 

[Ahhzz]

Nope, just referring in general to that class of software, like Eraser and Bleachbit, or even CCleaner. If you really are concerned about noone recovering data, make sure you're doing at least 3 passes, which is a DoD standard. If you need anything higher than that, we're probably all going to jail for helping a foreign agent

 

[seagate_surfer]

Hello GoFigureItOut, there are several ways you can format your drive. If you are thinking of selling the drive and do not want anyone to possibly recovering your data you can can zero your entire drive.

 

[John Naylor]

By your description, I'm kinda confused as to what you are trying to accomplish.

A. CCleaner "Cleaner" Module ? You want to get rid of junk files to free up space on your HD ?

You can recover free space by getting rid of junk files. Using this option it may show you that you have 344 GB of junk that can be safely removed based upon the checkboxes you want to clean in the left column

B. CCleaner "Drive Wiper" Module ? I', assumong that thos is the goal here and you want to remove the "ghosts" of all old files that have since been deleted, but which are recoverable unless they have been written over. ? Reasons you might want to do this would include, a) you want to destroy the drive or give it or the machine away, b) the police were just at your house and advised that they are coming back with a search warrant, c) don't want your now tech savvy GF / wife discovering your recently deleted porn video's or d) your name is Michael Cohen.

All kidding aside, if you don't "wipe the free space", it will just get written over. You will not gain anything other than a measure of privacy should someone with tech skills gain access to the drive. So if it was cleaning 344 GB of space that now contains ghosts of deleted files, you have made half of about those files unrecoverable using special tools. The space is not "returned", it was always there for you to use.

- Let's say a 2 TB drive had 344 GB contained "ghosts of old files" that could possibloy be recoverd using special tools and 166 GB of virgin space. Your drive status is:

1,500 GB of files
344 GB of "ghost" images of your files that could potentially be recovered (Free Space)
166 GB of virgin space (Free Space)
All totaled, you have 500 GB of free space

After "wiping" 160 GB...m your drive status is

1,500 GB of files
184 GB of "ghost" images of your files that could potentially be recovered (Free Space)
160 GB of random 1s and 0s that can not be recovered (Free Space)
166 GB of virgin space (Free Space)
All totaled, you have 500 GB of free space ... only change is 160 GB of your 344 GB of files can not be recovered and read.

https://www.ccleaner.com/docs/ccleaner/using-ccleaner/wiping-free-disk-space

 

[Ahhzz]

By your description, I'm kinda confused as to what you are trying to accomplish.

A. CCleaner "Cleaner" Module ? You want to get rid of junk files to free up space on your HD ?

You can recover free space by getting rid of junk files. Using this option it may show you that you have 344 GB of junk that can be safely removed based upon the checkboxes you want to clean in the left column

B. CCleaner "Drive Wiper" Module ? I', assumong that thos is the goal here and you want to remove the "ghosts" of all old files that have since been deleted, but which are recoverable unless they have been written over. ? Reasons you might want to do this would include, a) you want to destroy the drive or give it or the machine away, b) the police were just at your house and advised that they are coming back with a search warrant, c) don't want your now tech savvy GF / wife discovering your recently deleted porn video's or d) your name is Michael Cohen.

All kidding aside, if you don't "wipe the free space", it will just get written over. You will not gain anything other than a measure of privacy should someone with tech skills gain access to the drive. So if it was cleaning 344 GB of space that now contains ghosts of deleted files, you have made half of about those files unrecoverable using special tools. The space is not "returned", it was always there for you to use.

- Let's say a 2 TB drive had 344 GB contained "ghosts of old files" that could possibloy be recoverd using special tools and 166 GB of virgin space. Your drive status is:

1,500 GB of files
344 GB of "ghost" images of your files that could potentially be recovered (Free Space)
166 GB of virgin space (Free Space)
All totaled, you have 500 GB of free space

After "wiping" 160 GB...m your drive status is

1,500 GB of files
184 GB of "ghost" images of your files that could potentially be recovered (Free Space)
160 GB of random 1s and 0s that can not be recovered (Free Space)
166 GB of virgin space (Free Space)
All totaled, you have 500 GB of free space ... only change is 160 GB of your 344 GB of files can not be recovered and read.

https://www.ccleaner.com/docs/ccleaner/using-ccleaner/wiping-free-disk-space

He's already gotten his answer, John. He was just concerned about the fact that most Free Space drive cleaners fill up the empty space with data before deleting it all.

 

[Goopeas]

Just out of curiosity, I wanted to wipe free space on my hard drive. I decided to use CCleaner since it was already installed onto my PC. During the progress, I noticed the amount of free space was shrinking. 344 GB had went down to 160 GB, so I panicked and stopped the process! I am assuming that the completion of wiping free space meant it would go down to 0 GB. After it's done, the space is returned, right?

All I know is, if you clean the disk on your computer ,You'll get more free space on your computer.

 

[erpguy53]

regarding CCleaner, I do not recommend using the latest version as there were a bunch of complaints with the recent version and has offered the previous version.

https://borncity.com/win/2018/08/04/ccleaner-5-45-pulled-and-other-peculiarities/
https://forum.piriform.com/topic/52...-feedback/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-298509
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...lled-due-to-anger-over-usage-data-collection/

 

[DRDNA]

man if anyone is using CC with out their firewall locking it down then well they are a willing suspect of giving up their info...thnx for the heads up....CC has for a long time wanted to upload info on every cleaning it does for a very long time now....I install it and lock it down from internet access , either up or down

 

[eidairaman1]

Command/dos prompt, Defrag /? For all switches

 

[natr0n]

regarding CCleaner, I do not recommend using the latest version as there were a bunch of complaints with the recent version and has offered the previous version.

https://borncity.com/win/2018/08/04/ccleaner-5-45-pulled-and-other-peculiarities/
https://forum.piriform.com/topic/52...-feedback/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-298509
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...lled-due-to-anger-over-usage-data-collection/

I was gonna make a post about that. They updated it and you can opt out again.