Some Questions About Drive WIper and MFT WIping

[Michael543]

Hello,

I am planning on doing an MFT wipe and a drive wipe on the free space of my desktop computer. Before doing so, I have a few questions about the process and it’s effects on the computer that I’m confused about after reading a bunch of topics on these options.

1) Does an MFT wipe or a drive wipe affect the longevity and health of the harddrive? In this case, it’s a less than one year old mechanical hdd.

2) I’ve read that when doing these wipes, ccleaner makes a file to wipe the free space. What exactly is this file and does it have any impact on the hard drive and computer?

3) If I do a MFT wipe or a drive wipe a few times a year, would it affect the ability of the hard drive and computer to function optimally?

Thank you for any responses. I’m just confused after reading about these processes for the past hour. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You for Your Time

 

[Augeas]

1) Not really, if used sparingly on a HDD. A wipe is an overwrite, so it's an n gb write process.

2) It's just a file with a randomish name that's full of zeroes and is used to overwrite the free space on the drive.

3) No, but it wouldn't improve anything either.

Just select one pass and don't do it on an SSD. It's not something that you would do regularly, I've never run it on my pc.

[Michael543]

Thank you for the response and help.

It really help clarify these processes for me.

it’s very much appreciated.

[nukecad]

Drive wiping is something that you might do if you are selling or giving your drive/computer to someone else.

There isn't really any other reason or need to do a drive wipe.
It won't save any space, it won't speed up your computer in any way.

A drive wipe overwrites the 'free' spaces on the drive that used to contain any files that you have deleted before giving it to someone else, and makes sure that the new owner can't use recovery software to see what was in those files.
If they try all they will get is a load of zeros (or maybe X's, or whatever other character the drive wiper has used).

The MFT is the 'Master File Table' which contains a list of all the files on your computer.
It can sometimes still contain the names of files that you have deleted.
So wiping the MFT free space as well makes sure that any new owner can't even see the names of the files that you have deleted.

 

[Michael543]

Thank you for the information and clarity on the topic at hand. It’s very much appreciated.

Thanks Again.