Clean up free disk space

[Léon]

Is it normal that after cleaning free disk space with CCleaner (even when set on "3 wipes"), all the names of old files are still there (after I run Recuva)?

 

If I remember well, in the past there was nothing left after cleaning free disk space.

[Augeas]

This is normal if you are running WFS from Options/Settings and you haven't checked Wipe MFT. Either check it or use Drive Wiper.

[Léon]

This is normal if you are running WFS from Options/Settings and you haven't checked Wipe MFT.

 

'Wipe MFT' was definitely checked.

[Augeas]

I am assuming that nothing has changed with WFS in recent releases, as I don't run it very often. Wipe MFT will still leave the same number of filenames, but they will, or should, be random ZZZ.ZZZ's.

 

This applies to NTFS. FAT32 doesn't, of course, have an MFT, and I can't remember what CC does on a WFS.

[Léon]

Here it concerns a FAT32. When I did this action in the past, everything was empty, so what went wrong? The files are there with the complete amount of Kb's/Mb's, and some of them in "excellent condition". After "3 wipes"?

[Augeas]

I'm not sure (I can't remember since it's so long since I ran one, and I don't have a FAT partition to test it on) how WFS operates on FAT32 but the file names are held in directories, not an MFT, so they cannot be purged. Excellent condition simply means that no live file currently overwrites the deleted file's clusters. If you look at the file's header (in Recuva Advanced Mode) then you should see all zeroes. One pass is sufficient for an overwrite, three passes doesn't overwrite any more thoroughly than one, and it's far quicker.

[Léon]

Thank you, Mr./Mrs. Augeas, ( ),

 

Three passes I only did because one pass didn't seem to have worked.

 

When I look at the file's header in the advanced mode of Recuva, I don't see zeroes, but the complete names of very old files. As I said this was absolutely not the case in the past. That's why I asked what went wrong, Under 'Size' I see all the Kb's of the past. Or is it the present?

[Augeas]

When you ran WFS in the past was it on NTFS or a FAT32 volume? (Going back to posts 2 and 3, checking Wipe MFT has no effect on a FAT volume.)

 

One of the wonders of FAT32 is that on file deletion the first two bytes of the file's address are set to zero, so that when Recuva, or any software, follows this address it goes not to the actual start cluster of the file but to some point far closer to the start of the volume. What you are seeing in the file's header may be part of the root directory, or another directory, which is still a live file.

 

Going back to the file names, I can't see how CCleaner can alter or remove deleted file names from FAT directories, but that would always have been the case. I don't have any FAT volumes so I can't run a WFS to test it. Perhaps some other FAT user can chip in.

[Léon]

 Perhaps some other FAT user can chip in.

 

Okay, FAT users, feel free to chip in.