Hello,
this is my 1st post, so I'm not sure if this is the correct place.
Could you tell about the Drive wiper, and the variations of preverences for it.
Free space, 1 pass ,3 passes .....
I assume this is similar to a Format drive.
Thanks
Read Method 2 (Manually wipe with Drive Wiper):
My basic settings 
I duplicate the settings in Drive Wiper.
Thanks
I understand the concept. What are some of the distinctions between lets say defrag...
Also, what are the nuances of the 1, 2, 3 passes ?
Thanks again;
What are some of the distinctions between lets say defrag...
defrag? We're discussing drive wiping.
Three passes is supposed to overwrite three times, however I found it took no longer than a single overwrite.
Defrag, I was just wondering if there were similarities, i.e., defrag will re sort the drive space, so in some sense
it might be doing a simiar thing....
Also, is the wiper safe ? any issues ?
Not similar. For questions about defrag you should start a thread under Defraggler, so as to not provoke the mods.
Wipe is safe for me. Hasn't messed up any files yet.
So the wiper is more for security and privacy as opposed to performance, i.e., wiping won't help or speed up the system ?
Yes, a correct deduction. All the docs.
Update
It's fixed. Retested Drive Wiper 3-pass and it now takes 3x longer than 1 pass. 63.0 GB ► 0:34:00 vs 0:11:40
The devs read our complaints.
Cowpoke, here is the long story short. Kroozer is correct, but perhaps this may help somewhat.
Defragging a drive will rearrang files in a more optimal pattern. That is to say, unfragment files that are scattered all over the drive, as well as pull the files back together & free space back together so that Windows doesn't have to skip across free space + files in order to find what it is looking.
Additionally, it may also locate files to the fastest part of the drive. While defragging, it is possible old files will be over-written, but don't count on that for a security thing, because there will undoubtedly be tons of files that do NOT get overwritten during a defrag.
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Drive wiping is NOT similar to a format. A format blanks the whole drive so that it appears clean to Windows. Usually, it doesn't remove the files, especially if you do a quick format. Doing a drive wipe preserves your already existing files, & just writes random data patters over the areas Windows has reserved as "blank" in order to erase the files that still exist from prior file operations (file moving/copying/"deleting"/etc).
When Windows marks a file as deleted, it is still there. It simply removes a few key references to the file instead of erasing it. Wiping the drive removes these traces. If your drive happens to be SSD, you will not benefit from Defrag as all areas are equi-accessible. And you will need to use your built in TRIM to accomplish data erasure.
The difference in 1 & 3 passes, is there is speculation that the more passes you do over a drive, the less likely it is that someone can recover the data. There are some who would say that 1 pass is quite secure, then there are others who would say that well, they use electron microscopy/voltage calculations (ie, if this used to be a 1 at a certain V, then if it is a 0 now... & use a software descrambler that can guestimate using voltage table levels).
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I am not sure how possible this all is, but if your wanting to be sure, you can always use more than 1 pass. But some swear by 1 pass. You may wonder why MS did not make files to secure erase once deleted, but here are a few things to consider.
* If you copied a 30 GB file to your drive, secure wiping would take at least as long as it did to copy it. "Quick" erase takes fractions of a second.
* If MS used secure erase, how would u recover data if you "accidentally" deleted something?
* If MS used secure erase, not only would it take lots more time, but your drive would wear out lots faster.
Thanks, and I undestand the gist of all you said.
I did know what/how defrag worked, I guess what was getting at was this.
Defrag may place a file over a "deleted" non wiped file, then for all intents
it's erased covered I guess, just as it would be if it just happend to randomly
get covered by a new file.
So, when a file gets tagged as erased (but is still there) then copied over by a new
file, can the old one get retrieved ??
Also, not quite sure of the mechanics of a swipe in that one might not work or
be sufficient.... and then I see there is an option for 37 swipes.....
Cowpoke, here is the long story short.
I'd hate to see the long version
Hi. I am also new here. Hope it is alright to put a post on this page, but this post is "on-topic" because it concerns the CC Cleaner Drive-Wiping Utility, and in particular the one in Tools > Drive Wiper. When "Wipe": 'Entire Drive (All Data Will Be Erased') is selected from the drop-down menu, I cannot put a tick in the "Drives" (Local Disk C) checkbox. Nothing happens when the box is clicked in to try and put a tick in it. Has anyone completely wiped ("blanked") their Hard-Drive using the "Drive Wiper" in CC Cleaner, and if so, could you please provide a step-by-step description of how you did it. Incidentally, I have got the portable CC Cleaner in a flash-drive but cannot put a tick in the "Drives" checkbox of that one either.
you can't all data wipe the c: drive, think about it carefully, windows is running from the c drive, if you wipe all data on c you delete windows and everything else you consider "your computer"
the same paradox occurs if you try to wipe all data on the drive running ccleaner, how could ccleaner wipe itself?
finally please start your own threads from now on, while this question was slightly simular, your question does muddy any information provided to/for the original post
Okay, thanks Nergal: will try and start a seperate thread.