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CCleaner not wiping free space

billyellis
By billyellis
Jun 18, 2009
  1. I regularly use CCleaner as recommended by the virus/malware removal steps, including the wipe free space feature on occasion to really clean the empty space and theoretically speed up the HD, etc.

    However, I recently installed a program called MagicUneraser to try to recover a file I had inadvertently deleted, and after scanning the drive, it found hundreds of thousands of deleted files, and continues to do so after I have run CCleaner with the wipe free space enabled several times. This kind of pisses me off.

    Are there any programs out there that actually do what they claim and CLEAN and WIPE the HD free space??

    Alternatively, are there any undelete programs that have an option to permanently delete found file fragments? MagicUneraser does not offer this feature, so while it can detect files that apparently CCleaner can not, it can not clear them.

    Help! If I delete a sensitive document or want to control the # of copies of a particular document by making hard copies and deleting the active file on the HD, I would like to feel confident that this is actually being done. :mad:
     
    Jun 18, 2009
    #1
  2. Tmagic650

    Tmagic650 TS Ambassador Posts: 17,231   +234

    I was never aware the CCleaner wiped free space. There are many free utilities that can wipe free space on hard drives. This is one:
    http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/
     
    Jun 22, 2009
    #2
  3. billyellis

    billyellis TS Enthusiast Topic Starter Posts: 154

    Thanks, Tmagic650. :)
     
    Jun 22, 2009
    #3
  4. billyellis

    billyellis TS Enthusiast Topic Starter Posts: 154

    Update in case someone searches for info on wiping free space:

    Make sure the wiping program includes master file table (MFT) cleaning as an option.

    On startup a big chunk of the HD is allocated to the MFT, which stores information on the attributes of all files on the HD and allocates a certain default amount of space for each file's record and attributes. However, in NTFS file data itself is actually stored as an attribute of the file, and small files whose entire data can fit within the space designated for the file's attributes in the MFT are regularly stored entirely within the MFT, which can not be defragmented and is not accessed by many wiping programs.

    Apparently the deleted folders and file references that were still showing up when I scanned my drive with the undelete program were stored directly in the MFT. When I ran a program called R-Wipe&Clean, which has the option of cleaning the MFT of deleted files and file references, all those hits disappeared from the undelete drive scan results. :grinthumb
     
    Jul 20, 2009
    #4
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