I used CCleaner Drive Wipe for less than a second when I found out what I was actually doing. I know this wouldn't harm my computer, but does this actually take space on my computer and can I recover the space? As well as, is this good for my computer and does it actually clean up space?
The reason it ate space and did not give it back) was because it was ended early.
The Driver wiper creates one or more files filling the space that is free with something, thus wiping the "recoverable files" from that space (when you delete something from the computer it remains until it is overwritten you just don't see it and the OS calls it free space).
At the end of this routine ccleaner removes the files it created leaving free space that can not (in most cases) have old files retrieved from it.
Because you ended it early CCleaner's files are still there.
- Open "My Computer" or "Computer"
- Go to your system drive (usually C:) or which ever drive you were wiping.
- You'll see a/some relatively big files which are named with a long string of random letters and numbers.
- Remove those.
Alternately you can run wiper again and let it finish (note you may lose restore-points/previous-file-versions on the drive)
is this good for my computer and does it actually clean up space?
although it is not actually bad, the same arguement can be used that it is not actually good.
i believe all Drive Wipe does is 'fill' the unused space(that is, space not currently used by an active file) on your hard drive with 0's or 1's or some sort of space gobbling data.
its prime use would be if you want to erase your tracks/history or are about to sell the PC and want to clean it up and you feel a simple file deletion just isn't secure enough.
excessive hard drive i/o should be avoided if possible, as with any mechanical device; excessive use = excessive wear = shortened life span.
so is it good for my computer?, if used regularly: no, if used rarely: it won't hurt
and does it clean up space?, no
Wiping Free Space ("Drive Wiper") isn't one of those things that a user needs to bother using unless wanting to sell off the computer.