Lost 200gb of free space

CCleaner for Windows CCleaner Windows Help Requests
1

Was running a custom clean (wiping MFT free space) on my computer when i tripped over the power cable and my computer shut down, when I restarted it went from 226 gb of free space to 31gb and I have no Idea what to do

2

That can/will happen if a Wipe Free Space is inturrupted unexpectedly, such as by a power failure or unplugging an external drive while it is wiping.

Drive wipes work by filling up the disc (or the 'free' parts of the disc) with one or more files containing random data, (typically X's and Zeros) and then deleting that data. 

That way any files that you have previously deleted get overwritten with random data, and so cannot later be recovered by recovery software.

Of course if anything should stop the drive wipe before it has deleted the random data that it has written then that random data will remain, taking up space on the disc.

That sounds like what has happened to you, the wipe has been unexpectedly halted and so couldn't remove the random data it had written. 

So you just have to remove it yourself now. (You can't simply run the programme again, because it isn't 'free space' anymore it's got random data in it).

If you look in File Explorer then you should see one or more files (and/or a folder) with long, apparently random, names on the drive that you were wiping (probably C:) They'll have a creation date of the wipe, and a big file size. 

If you delete them the free space should be back.

3
12 hours ago, nukecad said: 
<div class="ipsQuote_contents">
	<p>
		That can/will happen if a Wipe Free Space is inturrupted unexpectedly, such as by a power failure or unplugging an external drive while it is wiping.
	</p>

	<p>
		Drive wipes work by filling up the disc (or the 'free' parts of the disc) with one or more files containing random data, (typically X's and Zeros) and then deleting that data.


		That way any files that you have previously deleted get overwritten with random data, and so cannot later be recovered by recovery software.
	</p>

	<p>
		Of course if anything should stop the drive wipe before it has deleted the random data that it has written then that random data will remain, taking up space on the disc.
	</p>

	<p>
		That sounds like what has happened to you, the wipe has been unexpectedly halted and so couldn't remove the random data it had written.


		So you just have to remove it yourself now. (You can't simply run the programme again, because it isn't 'free space' anymore it's got random data in it).
	</p>

	<p>
		If you look in File Explorer then you should see one or more files (and/or a folder) with long, apparently random, names on the drive that you were wiping (probably C:) They'll have a creation date of the wipe, and a big file size.


		If you delete them the free space should be back.
	</p>
</div>

thank you it worked, god bless you man