Wipe Free Space

[pappi]

CCleaner > Tools > Drive wiper > wipe...free space only.

What happens if I click the WIPE button?

 

[LMiller7]

It will overwrite all unused disk space. When files are deleted the space they previously consumed is not cleared but marked as unused. You will not be able to recover any files that were deleted and not in the recycle bin. That is what the function is designed to prevent. This is security measure with no other advantages. It will likely take a long time to run, particularly on a large drive.

If the drive has logical inconsistencies this function could cause serious problems. Not common but it does happen.

 

[pappi]

Hi L....I am not sure I understand what you try to tell me.

My HD drive capacity[Local Disk( c: )is 298GB out of which 257 to 258 is free space(is that the same as unused space?). BTW, my RAM is 4GB(i'm not clear if it has relevance to this thread).

If I wipe free space, what happens? Do I lose it? I mean I end up with what(instead of free space)? what takes its place?

My confusion is because my understanding of free space is it's part of HDD that is unused and thus, available to be filled or used... same as blank...meaning there is nothing there to wipe out or erase. Therefore, does wiping free space mean eliminating that unused part of HDD? Which meanss I end up with no available space to use?. If I so think correctly, why on earth would CCleaner even create such application?

 

[MilesAhead]

Wiping the free space just means overwriting it one or more times. This is generally used as a security measure so that "undelete" programs can't undelete a file to read it. I've used it a few times and as long as you only wipe the free space I believe this CCleaner feature is safe. And yes, "free space" is the same as "unused" when talking about the same partition.

There's no performance enhancement I know of. Just makes it harder to undelete files or fragments on the partition. Some people also periodically wipe the page file for the same reason.

 

[LMiller7]

Free space is the same as unused space and is not being used by any files. But it may still contain data if the space was previously used by deleted files. Wiping free space will overwrite it with zeros and prevent recovery of any data it may have contained. Space cannot be removed from a drive. It is either used by files or unused.Wiped space be remain free space and available for use by new files.

This is a security measure to prevent recovery of deleted files. This may or may not be a concern for you.

 

[Patonb]

That's sort of right Pappi.

Think of your harddrive like a library. When you save say a book File it puts the data on to the shelf in the library. When you want to ed that book, you click the file.
What windows does when you click the file is it goes to the card catalog, reads the file location then goes to that location in your hard drive and gets the file.

When you delete a file... and empoty the garbage can, is Windows goes to the card catalog and rips up the index card. This frees up the location for a new file to get put there.

So the file is still writen on the hard driv e but windows doesn't have it's location anymore so it's "gone:".

CCCleaners option goes through the card catalog and finds the emp0ty locations and "erases" them by writing 1 and 0 over the spots. It does this because there are programs that can go through the hard drive and bypasses the catalog and looks directly on the hard drive for files and can bring them back to be used.
15 Free File Recovery Software Programs (Free Undelete Software)

This is how the Police find peoplkes unwanted and incdriminating evidence, but by using a wiper, thee atre so many 1 qand 0's writen over the un-used sppace these recovery programs can't piece them together.

 

[ilikefree]

Good to do if you are selling a computer but not needed for normal use. That is why CCleaner leave it unchecked by default.

 

[pappi]

Hmmm....just as I thought I was getting the hang of it, I had to ask this sort of questions only to be made aware I ain't got it yet to fully comprehend these seemingly simple answers from all of you. Thanks, guys!

In other words, Free Space of HDD is not occupied by files currently being used(I presume they are located in the used space)but may contain data previously deleted which are still recoverable(by tools like Recuva)? What data? (I installed and then uninstalled Firefox. Are data from FF still in HDD?) Where are the totally useless orphaned software components stored?

I have no intention to recover anything I have deleted. Would wiping free space(and therefore totally emptying it of any data)improve PC speed? If so, is this better than disk defrag (which takes a lot of time)?

 

[ilikefree]

No it is not better than disc defrag .
Remember also if you are using an after market defragger like Auslogics you need to turn off the Windows defrag in task scheduler.
By default Windows won't defrag files larger than 64mb unless you run it from the cmd prompt with this command
defrag.exe c: -w
Note the 2 spaces 1 before c and 1 before -w

 

[LMiller7]

When files are deleted the disk blocks previously used will still contain the original data. They are not erased in any way. But these blocks are now marked as free and can be reused for other files. But since they contain the original data the original files can be recovered until the data is overwritten. In some situations this can be a security risk. Wiping free space erases unused blocks and prevents recovery. This is a security measure only and has NO performance implications whatsoever. But be aware that the Disk wipe process can take considerable time, particularly on a large drive. And if the disk has logical inconsistencies it could damage existing files. Not a common situation but it can happen.

 

[pappi]

At cold boot before computing: Computer > HDD...right click Local disk( C: ) > Properties > Capacity 298GB/Free Space 258GB . That means 40GB is used space.

I remember when I bought it 5 yrs ago, my HD was supposed to have 320GB. I presume (320 - 298 = 22) 22GB was used by OS? And the 40GB used space is filled with all the documents, softwares, updates.. etc that I had installed .

If I wipe free space, what happens to these numbers (Capacity- 298, Free space-258)? My guess is they do not change. But since the free space is wiped out of (deleted but recoverable) data, would it improve speed, similar to speed gained by defrag?

Just to be clear, I am not discussing wiping the Local Disk ( C: ) although this is an option but its box is empty(unchecked) by default. .... but merely the free space part of it.

 

[ilikefree]

You won't get a performance gain from wiping free space all you will do is make it harder to recover any deleted files.
It can still be done but it is harder to do.
Volume shadow copy service uses some space for system restore points and that may be where the 40 gig is used.

 

[Patonb]

You will never see the advertised space due to the bits to bytes conversion. 1024megs = 1Gig.
So a 320Gig hard driver is actually only 298Gigs for windows machines.

That's empty, then you take off your stuff.

 

[townsbg]

I like to think of a file system essentially as a database and the database contains information about the files both those you created and those used by the operating system. When windows "deletes" a file all it does is remove the entry about it from the database. The data is actually still on the hard drive until it is overwritten so with special software the files can be recovered. A secure overwrite of the free space removes all of the data from previously deleted files so that they can't be recovered. None of the existing files are touched. Keep in mind though that this will take a long time on hard drives that are mostly empty.

I hope this helps.

 

[LMiller7]

The difference between the advertised space of 320 GB and the actual of 298 GB is due to the different definitions of what 1 GB means. Most drive manufacturers define 1 GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes while in Windows it is 1024 x 1024 x 1024 (powers of 2). Do the math and the numbers are very close.

From Windows view a disk wipe does nothing at all. All numbers relating to disk space that is used and free will be exactly the same. Performance will be exactly the same. All that has changed is that disk blocks that may have previously contained data now contain zeros. Windows and the file system has absolutely no interest in the contents of free blocks. The only difference is that previously it may have been possible to recover deleted files. Now this is impossible.

A disk wipe is a security measure. For all other purposes it does nothing at all.

 

[pappi]

In my desperation to find IVT Bluesoleil2 1.3.0 driver for a newly acquired wireless headset, I downloaded some files from sites purporting to have the driver but all I got were some malwares and 36 infected files that fortunately MBAM successfully removed. Then I thought these files mmight still be sitting in the free space....so I wiped, finally. It took more than two hours. True, nothing changed performaance wise but I felt "cleaner"...like after a shower.

Now what am I to do with this headset that needs a driver?

 

[Patonb]

What is the headset model and brand?

 

[ilikefree]

The difference between the advertised space of 320 GB and the actual of 298 GB is due to the different definitions of what 1 GB means. Most drive manufacturers define 1 GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes while in Windows it is 1024 x 1024 x 1024 (powers of 2). Do the math and the numbers are very close.

From Windows view a disk wipe does nothing at all. All numbers relating to disk space that is used and free will be exactly the same. Performance will be exactly the same. All that has changed is that disk blocks that may have previously contained data now contain zeros. Windows and the file system has absolutely no interest in the contents of free blocks. The only difference is that previously it may have been possible to recover deleted files. Now this is impossible.

A disk wipe is a security measure. For all other purposes it does nothing at all.

I have some software that can recover data from wiped drives so it can still be done up to a point.
It can go back and recover data from drives wiped up to about 3 times.
Software is available mainly for law enforcement officials and not freely available to all.

 

[pappi]

What is the headset model and brand?

ShengYun BH560 Bluetooth V3.0 + EDR Stereo Headset

But my grandson used it earlier playing games. Now that he has gone... again it does not work . I checked Device manager and apparently a driver was installed and the yellow warning sign is gone. Now it says "This device is working properly" ...only thing is it does not seem to work at all for me.

I must babysit again to know how he did it.

 

[cyberdeck]

ShengYun BH560 Bluetooth V3.0 + EDR Stereo Headset

But my grandson used it earlier playing games. Now that he has gone... again it does not work . I checked Device manager and apparently a driver was installed and the yellow warning sign is gone. Now it says "This device is working properly" ...only thing is it does not seem to work at all for me.

I must babysit again to know how he did it.

If you do get the answer, could you please pass on how. I have the same model. I just ordered the V3.0 EDR dongle that is supposedly compatible, but I have three already, not sure which generation. I have Broadcom BTW which has A2DP, but it won't recognize the hardware. My computer did recognize it after 4-5 attempts, but without the driver it hasn't worked. So I am going on the assumption it is the dongle, but I don't know that for sure.