neurovir Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 I'm relatively new to using CCleaner. I tried to wipe the entire drive of a computer slated for obsolescence. However when I switched from wipe free space to wipe entire space The drive became inaccessible to select. Any rationale about how to proceed? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hav0c Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 Hello neurovir, Welcome to the forum. It will be much easier just to try right click on the drive and format it that way. But any case: What version for CCleaner are you using ? What Operating system are you running ? Was the full drive wipe done or did you try and access the drive while still wiping ? Every line of code written by man can be undone by man . "A loser in the real world is still a loser in the net!" - .hack//SIGN . Getting old is inevitable, growing up is optional !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan_B Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 A Quick format will NOT prevent Recuva from recovering all the files. I do not know how effective a slow format might be. Windows will NOT ALLOW its own partition C:\ to be Wiped or formatted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek891 Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Hello neurovir and welcome to the forum. Alan_B is correct, Windows will not allow you to either format or wipe the entire C: partition while Windows is running. There is one utility I use to securely erase conventional hard drives or SSD's, and that is Hiren's Boot CD. The download link is here: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ Warning: DO NOT click any of the green bars on this page, scroll down the page and find the .zip file (Hirens.BootCD.15.2.zip). Extract the contents and burn the .iso file to a CD or DVD. If you wish to create a bootable USB flash drive with the .iso file, I suggest using Rufus to do so: http://rufus.akeo.ie/ When you boot Hiren's, you will find a small menu, select "Linux based rescue environment (Parted Magic)". Once you boot to Parted Magic's desktop, click Drive Eraser. You will find 5 options that are referred to as "External", which basically write zeroes to individual partitions, to all partitions, the MBR area of the drive, or the entire drive. The last option is referred to as "Internal", and uses the drive's firmware to perform a Secure Erase - this is the one I prefer to use, providing the drive's firmware supports it (and the only one to use on SSD's!). Be aware of this - I recently wiped a 160GB SATA2 hard drive using this method, and it took about 55 minutes. So a 500GB drive will take about 3 hours, and a 1TB drive will take roughly 6 hours. So plan accordingly! Start every day with a smile and get it over with. - W.C. Fields Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
login123 Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 One more option, best imho. Just take the hard drive out and destroy it physically. Depends a bit on how critical the data is, also if the computer will be reused. Alternatively, if you enjoy tinkering, use that old hard drive for data storage on your new computer. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neurovir Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 Thank you all for the advice. In retrospect it was a bit naive for me to think that drive could be wiped itself while running from it. Which brings up the question of why that option is even there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan_B Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Because sometimes the operating system is NOT installed on C:\ but D:\ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
login123 Posted June 6, 2014 Share Posted June 6, 2014 @ neurovir If you want to wipe the drive without hardware tinkering, consider DBAN. Its free, it works from a CD and will zap the entire drive, including the operating system and files. Be CAREFUL: - Read about it first - make sure no other drives are attached that you don't want to erase Its Here: http://www.dban.org/ 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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