Should i wipe free space ccleaner

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Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. CCleaner Wipe Free Space. Automatic Wipe Open the Ccleaner, on top left you will see the Ccleaner icon. Click on the icon. Ccleaner will display a warning intimating you that the process will take some time to complete.

Accept it and move forward. Next on, run the Ccleaner as is described. You will be directed to a window, showing you the type of wipe you would need: The two types of Wipe are — Free Space Only This one will clear free space of the files you have already deleted. It would leave all the other files intact. Entire Drive This will erase all the files on the drive irrespective of the ones you want to keep safe.

This feature is disabled for the boot drive since it deletes everything off the drive. Here are a few examples of these limitations — The file you have deleted has already been overwritten by some other file.

Therefore, Overwriting this file will be redundant. The file you have deleted was overwritten by some other file before you ran Ccleaner. And now this other file has also been deleted. If the file has been created shortly before or after running the Ccleaner, the software would not be able to wipe the free space.

There you will find the Wipe Free Space drives area. The way it works it is goes to each unused byte on the drive and stores all 0's, then all 1's then a random value, and does this multiple times to eradicate the magnetic signature. Deleting files just removes them from the MFT, a directory of sorts of the files storage locations.

So, for disk space purposes, don't bother. If you have terrorist manuals and want to purge them, well I guess then you would use a wipe tool.

As the commenter said, be careful on an SSD. It's somewhat pointless to wipe it, and if you do you can bet you are now really shortening its life.

SSD's have limited write capabilities. So much so, they have special chips to randomize the writes to avoid overuse of certain sectors. Consider it, even wearing of the disk. Long story short, don't waste your time.

Also, I really suggest avoiding most of the "Clean your Computer" utilities. They are just spam pieces of crap that don't help. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Does wiping free space on disk free any space? Ask Question. Asked 1 year, 6 months ago.

Active 1 year, 6 months ago. Viewed 5k times. CCleaner has a feature for wiping free space on a disk. If there's one set of tools that I trust more than pretty much anything, it's Sysinternals. I used this piece of software to wipe my system volume free space. The accompanying article has some interesting information about how sdelete works, both for secure file deletion and free space wiping.

He's forgotten more about the internal workings of Windows operating systems than I will ever learn. Needless to say I'm still here, and so is my system partition. I analysed my volume before and after the clean with a recovery tool, and as expected sdelete had securely wiped my free space. That's with just the default single sdelete pass sdelete uses DOD Additionally, it is only for use on XP onwards. Of course, I would hope and indeed expect that ccleaner be just as well behaved.

And it has the advantage of a nice user interface. Please note that a lot of this thread has strayed from the OP's original concerns. I'm just talking here about the practicalities of wiping free space on the system volume. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy! Already have an account? Sign in here. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.

Share More sharing options Followers 1. Prev 1 2 Next Page 1 of 2. Recommended Posts. AssChin79 Posted September 25, Posted September 25, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options Posted September 26, Augeas Posted September 26, Andavari Posted September 26, Steff Posted September 26, Question to AssChin79 or anyone else with knowledge I'm currently on the hunt for a secure, stable disk wiper and file shredder.

I keep reading a lot of recommendation pointing to Eraser but last night I read a disclaimer from one of these people. His recomenndation was to NOT use any Eraser version beyond version 5. Quote: -"the last version whose core was developed by the original author, Sami Tolvanen" Any comment on this? Any comments on this? Any alternativ suggestions that boots under DOS?

Quote: -"the last version whose core was developed by the original author, Sami Tolvanen". Answer to Marmite He was refering to that later point releases i. Steff: What was his justification for that statement? AssChin: What version of Eraser were you using quite successfully, by the sound of it? Posted September 27, Steff Posted September 27, But mission acomplished now. I will from now on be more observant when I delete sensitive information I'll be the first to post if my partition disappears Also note I'm not knocking ccleaner here either Posted October 2, Is there universal agreement or understanding of what Metadata is and does?

Do they all get wiped? Do some or all escape wiping? Are the answers to the above dependant upon the O. On my system PerfectDisk excludes 13 files from being defragged. What about metadata? Posted October 3, Before I used "Wipe Free Space" I would need to know :- what parts of my privacy might be exposed via Metadata that is not wiped ;.

Well there's nothing quite like a practical test If there's one set of tools that I trust more than pretty much anything, it's Sysinternals.

And it has the advantage of a nice user interface Please note that a lot of this thread has strayed from the OP's original concerns. Create an account or sign in to comment You need to be a member in order to leave a comment Create an account Sign up for a new account in our community. Register a new account.