Wipe Free Space Question

[Zermatt2]

I've never used the Wipe Free Space option with CCleaner, so I've been looking into it tonight. I see a couple of things which look very similar, and I do not know if they do the same things.

 

1. In Cleaner, under "Advanced," there is a box for "Wipe Free Space." If I have my "P" drive checked in Options, an external drive I'd like to clean, then eventually, I will see about 2 hours as the time it shows to clean the free space when I run the Cleaner.

 

2. In Tools, there is Drive Wiper, along with a window to select drives to wipe. If I select that same "P" drive here and tell it to "Wipe," then the time shown to wipe it shows at 2 or more DAYS, not hours.

 

I have not gone through with the full time to see what happens.....I just cancel both after they run for a minute or two.

 

What is the difference between these two things? It does seem to me that they perhaps do the same thing, but if so, why does one say 2 or more HOURs, but the other says 2 or more DAYS, to complete?

 

Thanks,

[Andavari]

Read here:

http://www.piriform.com/docs/ccleaner/using-ccleaner/wiping-free-disk-space

[Augeas]

When you ran WFS from Advanced, did you also have Wipe Free Space checked under Cleaner/Windows/Advanced? Did you also check the Wipe MFT box? What overwrite option did you choose in Drive Wiper? How large is your P drive?

 

I wouldn't say that 2 days is a particularly accurate figure, but it could represent 'A long time'.

[Zermatt2]

Captain Spectacular, thanks for that link. If I understand this correctly, there are 2 ways to wipe your free space. One is Manually, using Drive Wiper under Tools. And the other way is automatically, using Cleaner, and you have to have the Wipe Free Space box checked under Advanced. But it looks as if you also have to have the particular drive checked under Options. Is this all correct? Does the manual method, Drive Wiper, do anything with wiping the MFT, or is it just the free space? Maybe this is a difference.

 

Augeas, I did have the Wipe Free Space checked under Cleaner/Windows/Advanced. And, the Wipe MFT box was checked. As far the option, I had the 35 pass Guttmann algorithm checked for both methods. I know this will cause the wipe time to greatly increase. My P drive is a portable 250 Gb drive with about 150 Gb "free." I guess my main question here, if my understanding is correct, is why there appears to be a significant difference between the 2 methods I see in the link Captain Spectacular provided. I do realize that these times are only very, very rough estimates, but if both methods essentially do the same thing, only one is manual and the other is auto, it seems as if there would be somewhat of a similar time for each method. However, one shows 2 hours; the other shows 2 days.....although, as mentioned, so far, I have only let these 2 methods run for a minute or two before cancelling. Perhaps if I let them run longer, they would converge upon a similar time for completion? And, perhaps, one method can clean the MFT and the other one doesn't?

 

Thanks, again, for both responses. Any further clarification regarding the difference, if any, and, in particular, with respect to time and the MFT, would be appreciated.

[Augeas]

Using WFS from the Options/Settings tab gives one pass of zeroes whatever you check elsewhere. The 35-pass you mention refers to secure file deletion and is ignored when WFS is run from this option. Yes, you have to have a drive selected, as you stated you had in your first post.

 

Using Drive Wiper you can select how many passes to wipe, and selecting 35 passes will (very crudely) be 35 times the one pass time, resulting in excess of two days. If you try with one pass then you should get a time of around 2 hours with this method (WFS from Options/Settings also wipes other files and has more to do, so may take a little longer).

 

The drive wiper cleans the MFT by default.

[Zermatt2]

Thanks, Augeas.

 

I did try the WFS from the Options/settings tab. I was just curious what it might do. It did take a little over 2 hours to complete the job. Guess I won't be running the Drive Wiper with the 35 passes!

 

Thanks, again.

[Andavari]

Guess I won't be running the Drive Wiper with the 35 passes!

 

Just look about the forums for reasons why that 35 passes is very excessive which is important info to know if you leave the secure deletion enabled, and if your external drive is by chance an SSD don't use anything above 1-pass on it.

[Zermatt2]

Andavari....thanks for the advice. I'll take a look at the forums. Guess I just wanted to really wipe some password spreadsheets I have as well as some budget files for work. But, it's probably excessive, as you say.

 

That external drive isn't an SSD.....I'm curious about this and why more than 1 pass might not be good for it, so I'll read up on that as well!

[nodles]

That external drive isn't an SSD.....I'm curious about this and why more than 1 pass might not be good for it, so I'll read up on that as well!

SSD guide

You shouldn't use "normal" HDD wiping tools on SSD. SSD doesn't work the same way and it'd just shorten it's lifespan (and probably speed over time).

[Zermatt2]

SSD guide

You shouldn't use "normal" HDD wiping tools on SSD. SSD doesn't work the same way and it'd just shorten it's lifespan (and probably speed over time).

 

Thanks, Nodles. Kind of figured it was something like that....just haven't had time to read more about it, but I am curious about things like this.

[scottls]

Just look about the forums for reasons why that 35 passes is very excessive which is important info to know if you leave the secure deletion enabled, and if your external drive is by chance an SSD don't use anything above 1-pass on it.

Then there's the SSD-specific Win 7 TRIM command, which helps to clear left-behind data and file fragments. Without this software garbage collection, SSDs actually slow down over time — an effect that plagued many of the first-generation SSD devices until engineers figured out what was going on. (Wikipedia explanation of TRIM.)

 

Very important to run the Quick normal maintenance TRIM command, and doesn't kill SSD's as badly as WFS.

WFS killed 3 Crucial C300 SSD's, until I discovered it somehow got turned on...?

 

~~~~~~~~~

I got tired of messing with SSD's, and "upgraded" to a Fast WD Raptor, 10kRPM sata6 32bit Hard Drive!-

With CC & Defraggler (7 full passes..., Until 0sec- I Run as Admin), it outperforms my old SSD in Many areas..., especially IO's (i.e. overwrite a file...).

[Augeas]

You've been going on about this for almost a year, Scott. I can tell you categorically that CC does not, and has never, enabled Wipe Free Space as a default. Go to Cleaner/Windows/Advanced, right click on Wipe Free Space and select Restore Default State. The box will be unchecked. That's turned off by default. And I am not going to join in a no it didn't, yes it did argument.

[scottls]

You've been going on about this for almost a year, Scott. I can tell you categorically that CC does not, and has never, enabled Wipe Free Space as a default. Go to Cleaner/Windows/Advanced, right click on Wipe Free Space and select Restore Default State. The box will be unchecked. That's turned off by default. And I am not going to join in a no it didn't, yes it did argument.

 

Thank you for the reply, as I never received an email notification to my earlier post (I'll check my Spam settings?)-

I'll stop going on about about WFS default...!