HD incorrectly identified as SSD

[waitey]

Hi

CCleaner has identified my hard disk as an SSD, but it is not.   In the past it hasn't misidentified it and this happened immediately after I had wiped the free space on it, wiped MFT free space and then rebooted.  Any ideas why?  Thx.

[waitey]

Some more info.  The disk is misidentified as an SSD when signed into one Windows account but correctly identified as a hard disk when signed into another.

[nukecad]

'Wrong disk type' has been noted many times and seems to be a Windows issue with identifying (some?) disk types or models.

CCleaner (and the other Piriform apps) ask Windows what type of disk it is - so they have to go with what Windows says it is.

Annoying when Windows gets it wrong, but Windows is 'the boss' on an Windows system..

 

[Andavari]

What file system is the SSD formatted with? Is it NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT?

If it's not NTFS, then Windows will usually identify an SSD as a Hard Disk Drive ("HDD").

Windows is finicky with what the file system is, for example; Formatting a USB Flash Drive with NTFS can/may/will have it identified in for instance Optimize Drives as a Hard Disk Drive.

[waitey]

Thx for the responses.

The disk is NTFS.

I could understand the misidentification if it was Windows consistently providing incorrect information to CCleaner, but that's not how it appears.  I've had CCleaner on the laptop with this disk for several years and it's always identified the disk correctly.  It's only on the last two days that it's misidentified it.  Furthermore, the Laptop has two user accounts, and on one account CCleaner identifies the disk correctly and on the other account it misidentifies it.  Spooky.

[Andavari]

6 hours ago, waitey said:

Furthermore, the Laptop has two user accounts, and on one account CCleaner identifies the disk correctly and on the other account it misidentifies it.

 It almost sounds registry related because Windows stores drive information in the registry, but how it could be correct on two occasions with user accounts and wrong on another is very strange.

One thing to try and I haven't the slightest clue if it will make any difference is this:
Right click the CCleaner icon and select: Run as administrator

 

[waitey]

Hi Andavari, I tried your suggestion but it still misidentified the disk.  

I'm just going to accept this as a "feature" as it only issues a warning and doesn't actually stop CCleaner from wiping the drive's free space.  Maybe one day it will disappear as mysteriously as it appeared. 

Thx for all the responses.

[Maynard]

I've seen several replies from moderators attribute this to CCleaner getting drive type from Windows and in the case of my system that's not the case.  Windows is correctly identifying the plugged in (external) USB drive as HDD, yet CCleaner is identifying it as SSD.  Now, once upon a time I have plugged in an SSD via USB, and perhaps some registry item that CCleaner is errantly looking at indicates wrong drive type.

Developers should dynamically check drive and not depend on any old/stale information.  It's unacceptable that this CCleaner issue hasn't been fixed in years now! 

Note that I'm fine with single pass on a newer high capacity (very small geometry) drive, but I'm talking about old drives in the 20-80 GB range where drive geometry can still allow forensic recovery if not properly erased with multiple passes.

Below is a capture from Windows Defrag tool that correctly shows drive type...Note how my Drive "Z" is correctly identified as Hard Disk Drive.  Then in the follow-up screenshot from CCleaner (v5.82.8950...latest as of 7/1/21) drive "Z" is incorrectly identified as SSD.  No folks, not coming from Windows...unless developers calling wrong API...and no, this is not some hybrid drive with both NAND flash and rotating media...it's a plain old Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 HDD.

Please fix this once and for all!

...and here you go...CCleaner again mis-identifies as SSD.