CC never completes Wiping Drive Free Space - Runs indefinitely

When running the CCleaner and checking the "Wipe Free Space" box under Advanced, it gets to 97% complete at which point it tries to start wiping the free space and the timer just goes up and up and never completes. Left it running overnight and checked it in the morning and looks like it went backwards.

Unfortunately, when going to "Tools," and using "Drive Wiper" on OS (C:) I've seen it get to almost 47% complete, then I come back in a few hours and its back to 10% complete and again, never completes and the time to completion goes up and up and then fluctuates back down.

I did quite a bit of searching and don't see a lot of other people having the same problem, What the heck is going on????

I have the newest version download and I have Cox Mcafee AV installed.

Any help would be spectacular at this point. :ph34r:

Windows 8.1 64 bit

Intel Core i-3 4030u CPU @1.90 GHz 4.0 GB Ram

INtel HD graphics family

I have a similar problem, seems to be related to 'wipe MFT free space'. It gets up to 28%, then the 'estimated time' just increases exponentially, at 2 or 3 seconds per second. I've noticed the older answers (2012) by moderators on the forum concerning this option seem a bit evasive. Right now I'm running 'wipe free space' with 'wipe mft free space' unchecked, and it seems ok.

BTW, I have a Dell Inspiron 64 bit dual core with a half full 320GB disk rated at 5400rpm and deemed in 'good health' by Piriform Defraggler....

I have a similar problem, seems to be related to 'wipe MFT free space'. It gets up to 28%, then the 'estimated time' just increases exponentially, at 2 or 3 seconds per second. I've noticed the older answers (2012) by moderators on the forum concerning this option seem a bit evasive. Right now I'm running 'wipe free space' with 'wipe mft free space' unchecked, and it seems ok.

BTW, I have a Dell Inspiron 64 bit dual core with a half full 320GB disk rated at 5400rpm and deemed in 'good health' by Piriform Defraggler....

So here is the deal. The timer IS NOT ACCURATE so you have to disregard it. When I run CCleaner, it will get to approx. 97% then it goes through A LOOONNNGGG process before it actually will display the amount of progress, starting at 0 MB of XXX,XXXMB. For instance, "Wipe Free Space 10,000 MB of 455,000 MB." THIS is the accurate reflection of your progress and will EVENTAULLY count up to the entire amount of Free Space and stop.

Be prepared to wait a LOOONNNGGG time once you get to this part of the process although it is going to depend on the amount of Free Space. It took about 26-30 hours of continuous running to complete with 435,000MB of FS. In comparison, I ran this same process on an old computer with only 3,300 MB of Free Space and it took about 5 minutes. Set your computer's "Go to sleep" function at MAX and be prepared to come back and wake it up several times.

Q: Now for anyone reading that can help answer this question, I would appreciate the heck out of it and award to you a prize of 1,000 Internets :ph34r: (J/K, obscure reference).

The first time I ATTEMPTED to run and stoppped prematurely, it listed ~455,000MB to clean, I abandoned this and tried again the next day. The next attempt that actually finished to completion, it listed only ~435,000 MBS of Free Space.

Just for my own curiosity, I used the TOOL 'Wipe Free Space' on Drive OS(C:), to see if it would be shorter or longer and now it lists only ~422,000MB??? I am not a heavy user of this computer and I am not downloading anything, WHERE is this free space going?

Are files being sequestered somewhere or somehow by MS? Sure it sounds paranoid, but I would trust these douchebags about as far as I could throw 'em. Especially since Windows 8.1 disallows the disabling of Thumbnail Caching and the MS engineer told me "its not advisable" and also that without the "Professional" version that it could not be done.

So here is the deal. The timer IS NOT ACCURATE so you have to disregard it. When I run CCleaner, it will get to approx. 97% then it goes through A LOOONNNGGG process before it actually will display the amount of progress, starting at 0 MB of XXX,XXXMB. For instance, "Wipe Free Space 10,000 MB of 455,000 MB." THIS is the accurate reflection of your progress and will EVENTAULLY count up to the entire amount of Free Space and stop.

Thanks, I get this. However, there is a specific problem with 'Wipe MFT'. Without 'Wipe MFT' checked, 'Wipe Free Space' takes about 1 1/2 hrs. If I check 'Wipe MFT', after 6 hours the disk is still thrashing and the process is getting nowhere. Now the MFT is a very small part of the total disk content.....

Mft may be small in size, but wipe free space isn't wiping the mft as a file, it's changing each and every deleted file's entry into zzzzzzz depending on the number of entries this may take a prohibitively annoying amount of time

Mft may be small in size, but wipe free space isn't wiping the mft as a file, it's changing each and every deleted file's entry into zzzzzzz depending on the number of entries this may take a prohibitively annoying amount of time

Thanks Nergal, but I'm afraid this still doesn't compute. Overwriting (say) 1000 files takes 1 1/2 hrs, but overwriting 1000 index entries takes 10 times as long ?