Drive Wiper

Just trying to understand how this works.

My system has been formatted to NTFS. What's the difference in wiping free space with the various options and does it affect system performance? In terms of visited web pages, once they are deleted, I guess they are moved to free space on the C drive, so the only way to be sure of removing complete trace of them is to do a 3,7 or 35 pass wipe?

Are there any other settings that I should select in CCleaner just to make sure? Obviously reinstalling the OS and fully wiping the drive is an option but very tedious...

It might be better to spend a few hours with Wikipedia or Google to get a better comprehension of all this. But to get you started, the different wfs options relate to how many times data is overwritten, and what pattern is used. WFS will not make any difference whatsoever to system performance (apart from running it). Deleted web pages, or any files, are not moved but the clusters they occupy are flagged by the O/S as free (the disk doesn't care either way). One pass is entirely sufficient for overwrites. The multi-pass techniques are old, and in the 35-pass case positively archaic. No data in the rational world can be recovered after being overwritten once.

WFS in Options/Settings allows you to overwrite MFT entries, which Drive Wiper doesn't. And none of the above applies to SSD's, except the Wikipedia bit.

Obviously reinstalling the OS and fully wiping the drive is an option but very tedious...

Why bother reinstalling a complete O.S. ?

Why not download A 10 MB ISO and burn a Boot CD, The DBAN = Boot and Nuke.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBAN

Thanks - this makes a little more sense now and it's always good to know what these options can do.

I will definitely do some more research on this on the internet.

P.S. I think DBAN wipes the whole HDD from boot only and cannot do a free space only wipe.

When you start up the P.C. the BIOS thinks a bit and if it sees the CD it boots from the CD without any influence from the contents of the HDD(s).

I believe the DBAN code just looks at what HDD(s) are accesible and totally disregards any partition tables, MFT, MBR or anything else,

and all the sectors are wiped regardless of whether they were in use or were free space.

Actually I am not sure about the definition(s) of free space.

I assume that when CCleaner wipes Free Space then it confines its activities within the partitions that it is aimed at,

and totally disregards any "Unused Space" that might exist between non-contiguous partitions.

I would guess that if you simply delete/remove a partition it retains all the data and Wipe Free Space will not go there.

I am fairly certain that DBAN will "take no prisoners".

Hiya guys!!

I just wondered that if i run Drive Wiper in my CCleaner and if i choose Free Space Only does it leave all my files in my hard drive and only wipes free space?? And will it empty my MFT too?? Does it leave all my files in my hard drive though i run it??

Hiya guys!!

I just wondered that if i run Drive Wiper in my CCleaner and if i choose Free Space Only does it leave all my files in my hard drive and only wipes free space?? And will it empty my MFT too?? Does it leave all my files in my hard drive though i run it??

Yes