badbiosvictim

Augeas, I am reading the replies. I am not ignoring them. I am trying to understand cluster tips. The last several days, I have searched for articles on cluster tips. There are not that many. The reason why I need to delete cluster tips is not to regain space. Malware is hiding in cluster tips. Why did you say Secure File Deletion is not necessary after moving my files to another removable media and before reformatting? If Secure File Deletion and ticking box to wipe cluster tips is not performed, wouldn't the cluster tips remain after reformatting? Reformatting does not delete cluster tips.

I know cluster tips (slack space) is not part of free space. Using CCleaner to wipe free space did not decrease cluster tips as detected by Karen's Disk Slack Checker. Karen's Disk Slack Checker is at http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptslack.asp. I have significant amount of cluster tips in all of my removable media and external hard drives. For example, Karen's Disk Slack Checker detected that my 8 GB Kanguru Flasblu flashdrive has 900.93 MB slack. Slack space is a very large percentage of the 8 GB flashdrive. Screenshot of beginning of Karen's analysis is at http://imgur.com/SDr6oza Screenshot of end of Karen's analysis is at http://imgur.com/tnr8jhs I will repeat my questions: (1) Secure File Deletion deletes the file and cluster tip. I don't want to delete my personal files. How to delete cluster tips WITHOUT deleting my personal files on removable media? Ccleaner does not offer an option to do this. (2) Do I need to move my personal files to another disk, perform a Secure File Deletion of flashdrive, move my personal files back to flashdrive and retest with Karen's Disk Slack Checker? (3) Several months ago, Windows reformatted the flashdrive. FAT32's default cluster size for a 8 GB drive is 4 KB. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192322 However, Karen's Disk Slack Checker reported it as 16 KB. However, the minimum size of file on disk of all of my removable media is 32 KB. If I move my personal file to another disk, perform Secure File Deletion on the flashdrive, reformat the flashdrive and move my files back, new large cluster tips will be recreated because the FAT32 cluster size is always larger than the default cluster size on all of my removable media. All the Windows XP and Windows 7 computers I have used in the past several years, do not give options of 'Allocation Unit Size.' The drop down box only has 'Default Allocation Size.' Screenshot of a Dell desktop XP #1 is at http://imgur.com/2GAov8Z Screenshot of a different Dell desktop XP #2 is at http://imgur.com/12kKa99 The 'Allocation Unit Size' should have options ranging from "512 bytes to 64K." http://superuser.com/questions/31682/formatting-a-partition-what-should-the-allocation-unit-size-be Gparted and Disk Utility in linux can format to FAT32 but they do not offer an option of Allocation Unit Size. Gparted GUI formats to default cluster size. http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=17030 http://askubuntu.com/questions/370660/is-it-possible-to-set-allocation-unit-size-with-gparted-when-formating-an-extern Using Windows 'Default Allocation Size,' or a linux partitioner that does not offer choice of Allocation Unit Size, all my removable media have size of file on disk larger than FAT32's default cluster size listed at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192322 This will recreate large cluster tips.

I read the Wipe Cluster Tips before posting this thread. It needs to be expanded to more fully cover this confusing topic. How to wipe cluster tips on removable media? Ccleaner's option to wipe cluster tips appears to be only for C drive, not removable media. (1) Options > Settings > Secure Deletion > Secure File Deletion > tick wipe cluster tips. This setting does not ask which drive. Doesn't secure file deletion mean deleting files? Or (2) Tools > Drive Wiper > tick wipe free space only > tick which drive. This has no option to wipe cluster tips. Do I need to move my personal files from my removable media to a hard drive, wipe removable media and move back my personal files? Do you mean moving personal files to a linux partition will not remove the cluster tips in the removable media that the files were initially in? Or that moving personal files to a linux partition moves the cluster tips to the linux partition? Do linux partitions have cluster tips? If not, that would be another good reason to switch to linux.

Are cluster tips inside personal files? Personal files are non system files such as .txt, .doc, .pdf, .jpg, .mp3, .avi, etc. CCleaner Professional Plus offers option to wipe cluster tips while wiping a drive. I don't want to delete my personal files. If cluster tips are inside personal files, how to wipe the cluster tip without deleting the files? If cluster tips are not inside personal files, are they in free space? Would wiping free space and keeping personal files on the disk wipe the cluster tips? Do all hex editors display cluster tip at the end of file (EOF)? If not, which hex editors do and which ones don't? Would moving my personal files from a FAT32 removable media to another FAT32 removable media delete the cluster tips from inside personal files? Would moving my personal files to a linux partition, remove the cluster tips from inside personal files?