Why wipe free space ccleaner

I've used v. Better safe than sorry, eh? Also, some members here have had experience with DBAN, maybe they will comment after a time. If your purposes involve matters which require absolute data security, like the code to launch the missles or the formula for Coca-Cola, you should not count on any software app.

Replace and destroy the HD. Just my opinion. Or to corrupt a line from 'Aliens' I don't even like Coca Cola With a new fresh disk I will from now on be more observant when I delete sensitive information Glad you're sorted FWIW I've never had a problem with Eraser, and at some point I've probably done a system partition free space wipe, though I've no idea at what version. I can say that I will continue to confidently use context menu 5.

I'll be the first to post if my partition disappears. Also note I'm not knocking ccleaner here either For now I'm happy with 5. But I would never trust it, or any other. That task is best trusted from DOS. Do any that are not wiped have the potential to carry "private data" and leak when fragmented or upon next reboot? For all I know there could be dozens of other Metadata files that are not excluded because Windows does not fall apart when they are defragmented.

OOPS - Metadata has increased from up to excess fragments, and its sum total size is now Edited to add I further deduce that since the size of I also assume that the metadata that is not excluded from defraging may be readable as complete files,.

I am trying to get light shone into dark corners that many users of free space wipers may not be aware of. Alan your post has piqued my curiosity.

When you use some of the tools that expose things like this, there's maybe a tendency to worry unnecessarily but understandably about potential issues with them. Given the correct tools, I would have though that once you get down to disk level, the principles are the same whatever OS you're looking at. But that's not an area I have any experience with, practical or otherwise; so I won't comment further on that. Since these objects do not constitute free space, this is not a free space issue.

You might be concerned at what's in these objects from a privacy perspective; but that's a different question. Effectively this is the same issue. Any OS files, hidden or otherwise, should not constitute free space. Therefore, any tool that wipes free space must be able to recognise the difference between free space and used space; otherwise it's not doing it's job. And if it fails to do that on your system volume then it's potential bad news.

But if your disk tool can quite happily recognise these files, why shouldn't your free space wiper? They are both reading your disk directly and dealing with the raw entries; whereas your OS view is only showing you what it wants you to see. I expect any tool, ccleaner included, that claims to be able to wipe your system volume, can do so effectively and properly.

There can't be worse press for a piece of software than 'a feature' that trashes your OS partition! That's not to say throw caution to the wind. I think Steff's approach is the safest and the approach you seem to advocate with your reference to a boot disk , which is not to do this on an active system partition; i.

But this is one scenario when I'd definitely want a current partition back-up available! And if you're still unsure I think the safest way for the nervous or untrusting is And at the end of the day it also really comes back around to whether you need to wipe your free space. One of those issues that will run and run I think. But as I said earlier in the thread If you have sensitive or private stuff you no longer want wipe it as you go along or keep it in an encrypted volume.

If you do either of those there's no need to wipe free space. Marmite: "And if you're still unsure I think the safest way for the nervous or untrusting is It certainly works! I can't download Disk Filler from that link. The only available file is one that Mr. Edwards says is not it. Am I doing something wrong? Damn - I do apologise. It's a widget I've had for a couple of years and I just googled it to find the web site I've taken that link out to stop others getting the same problem - thanks for pointing it out.

Meanwhile I'll google for a similar tool! Disk Filler is gone? There's always copy'n'paste. It would normally be the first in the list of deleted files - or the only file found if you have Show Securely Overwritten Files unchecked.

This leads me to think that there has been activity on that disk since the wfs that has overwritten this file. The best plan for Timx is, as I suggested, to run wfs on a non-system disk which has no activity against it. I was just wondering as I feel there will come a day when I need a file wiped. CC and those sort of programs can take it to a level beyond the reach of mere mortals, but with the right software, patience and persistence, it's amazing what can be pieced together.

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Does wiping free space delete everything? Share More sharing options Followers 1. Recommended Posts. Jarnorth Posted May 19, Posted May 19, Hi, Does wiping free space totally delete everything or does it leave some files alone?

Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options Nergal Posted May 19, Jarnorth Posted May 20, Posted May 20, Hi, Thank you for your quick response.

The message is as follows: Wipe Free Disk Space limitations CCleaner can't wipe every deleted file from your free disk space. Deleting files just removes them from the MFT, a directory of sorts of the files storage locations.

So, for disk space purposes, don't bother. If you have terrorist manuals and want to purge them, well I guess then you would use a wipe tool. As the commenter said, be careful on an SSD. It's somewhat pointless to wipe it, and if you do you can bet you are now really shortening its life.

SSD's have limited write capabilities. So much so, they have special chips to randomize the writes to avoid overuse of certain sectors. Consider it, even wearing of the disk. Long story short, don't waste your time.

Also, I really suggest avoiding most of the "Clean your Computer" utilities. They are just spam pieces of crap that don't help. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Does wiping free space on disk free any space? Ask Question. Asked 1 year, 6 months ago. Active 1 year, 6 months ago.

Viewed 5k times. CCleaner has a feature for wiping free space on a disk. CCleaner's documentations says: When you delete a file, Windows removes the reference to that file, but doesn't delete the actual data that made up the file on your hard drive.