should file carving recover files after "wipe free space"

Is it normal for file carving to be able to recover deleted files, even after using CCleaner's "wipe free" space feature?

:? Carving? Do you mean File recovery? If so, many factors come into play. The recovery program, the time, money and effort spent at recovery, the amount of time (=disc usage not chronological) between wipe and recovery, and the number and type of wipes (at diminishing returns and great cost to disc health/lifetimes if you use multiple wipe passes or wipe multiple times).

Thanks. And yes I am referring to file recovery.

When you refer to the disk health costs, are you talking about the fact that the arm is moving across the entire disk for an extended period of time and there is an inherent risk of disk failure? Or is there some other risk of integrity failure from writing and rewriting an entire disk multiple times.

Also, do you know if there have been any tests done of CCleaner use/effectiveness against other software packages, or in when used conjunction with other software packages

Arm movement (head breakage) and over magnetization would cover disc health yes

Tests, unknown but most likey. However no such information could be published or linked here, as the forum has rules against any mentions of competition products (so only recuva could be named). A test is nothing but anecdotal though, as every recovery is an individual entity (based on the factors in reply 2)