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ccleaner wiper


Safiullah

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hi everybody,

i m currently using ccleaner.itz very good software, but problem which i m facing tht ccleaner wiper doesnot wiper efficiently bcz after wiper through ccleaner i used another software O&O Unerase(it shows/recovers deleted files on hard drive) to check whether it has cleaned the empty space or not. unfortunately ccleaner wasn't able to wipe the empty space. i don't knw the reason... and therfore chose to report here. cud any1 help me. thanx

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Yes, O&O and other erasers (Heidi's Eraser) are very powerful, "macho" erasers.

 

They are different from CCleaner. CCleaner is more gentle, lighter, possibly safer. CCleaner is intended for many, many uses.

 

Big erasing systems also clean bits and pieces of the file that still remain on your disk. CCleaner removes access to the file, or pointers to the file. However, many pieces of the file still exist, until you eventually over-write them. They are not really gone. They are still there, until finally you write another file on top.

 

Does that matter? Yes, for security. No, for cleaning. If you want to BE SURE EVERY TRACE IS GONE, you use the powerful erasers. If you want to SIMPLY CLEAN your system, but you don't care if there are still parts of your data remaining, you use CCleaner. Normally, CCleaner is just fine. It is all you need. If you work for the FBI, maybe you need something stronger.

 

Okay?

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I think the original poster was referring to cleaning with the secure deletion option enabled (hence his use of the word "wiper").

 

This is contrary to performing a simple "delete", as in removing pointers and leaving the data until it's overwritten later, as you describe. The secure deletion option is supposed to actually overwrite the files for you when it performs the cleaning, so that recovery is made impossible (or nearly so).

 

I actually came here to report the same problem: I performed a cleaning with the secure deletion option enabled, on "Simple Overwrite" and Recycle Bin included in the cleaning locations. I then scanned the drive with Recuva. Nearly all the data that had been in the recycle bin was available for recovery, and most of the files showed no damage at all.

 

I'm not sure if this is a bug or what, but it seems to me like cause for concern. I understand that there are more robust programs for erasing all remnants of files, but this is still supposed to be a secure deletion. Leaving entire files intact is not exactly security.

 

I should note that explicitly wiping the deleted files from within Recuva did the trick. The filenames were still there, but the file data was unrecoverable.

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now what shoul i do, i should report piriform explicity or they will take the notice of the post?

 

@ Groonx,

sorry i didnt understand wht u meant by this:

I should note that explicitly wiping the deleted files from within Recuva did the trick. The filenames were still there, but the file data was unrecoverable.

 

@ equazcion

could you suggest any eraser?

actually i have read somewhere on the internet that data(or its image on the hard drive) effects the performance at times.Do you have any information?

 

THANX TO BOTH OF YOU

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  • 5 weeks later...

It would be nice if someone did notice this thread and addressed the problem without having to repost to the bug section, but that may not happen.

 

A good eraser program is Eraser by Tolvanen, available at http://www.heidi.ie/node/6. You can erase individual files, folders, or wipe all unused space on a drive (shredding all files deleted previously from other programs).

 

I've seen other threads complaining of recoverable files following CCleaner's secure deletion. I hope the secure deletion feature isn't just some sort of placebo. If there's no answer here for a while I'll post to the bug section.

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Hi, Safiulla. Welcome. :)

 

Here is the deal as I understand it, but I'm certainly not an expert.

You must be referring to one of two functions: 1. Secure deleting, or 2. free space wiping. Am assuming that equazcion is correct, you are referring to the secure delete function, not the free space wipe.

 

I think CCleaner overwrites the file contents but doesn't overwrite the filename when you use secure delete.

To check that:

- run Ccleaner, and remember some of the file names it is set to delete.

- use your recovery program to put some of the files which you know were deleted by CCleaner into a folder.

- Then open the recovered file and see what you find inside.

- If the contents were overwritten you will find it to be full of junk, not readable.

 

There are almost certainly files on the hard drive outside the recycle bin already, that is, before you run Cccleaner. They may have some of the same names as the files that Ccleaner deletes. So be sure that the file(s) you recover and inspect are actually ones deleted by CCleaner.

 

There are several secure deleters available free, some overwrite the file name. Wiping free space takes a loooooong time, whichever app you use.

 

Recuva (http://www.recuva.com) is a good file recovery app.

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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It's easy to tell which files were in the recycle bin, since those files have altered names -- uniform names beginning with "DC". Also, since I used Recuva in my test, which lists the paths of the deleted files, I could easily see which resided in c:\Recycler.

 

Recuva also shows how much each file has been overwritten, and as I said, most of the supposedly "wiped" files showed as completely undamaged and fully recoverable. It wasn't just the file names that were available.

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equazcion, did you open those files to see if they were useable? Reason I ask is that when I tried several "deleters" I went the long way around and wiped the whole of the free space first, using sdelete, then deleted some test files, then emptied the recycle bin, then restarted twice and used various recovery apps to find the files that had been in the recycle bin but were now out in space.

 

Don't remember for sure (been more than 2 weeks :P ), but I believe that the test files looked ok but contained junk. Not gonna do it again, tho. Took a looooong time.

The CCleaner SLIM version is always released a bit after any new version; when it is it will be HERE :-)

Pssssst: ... It isn't really a cloud. Its a bunch of big, giant servers.

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