need software to wipe unused space on HD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tod
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Tod

I've got a customer who needs a program that will wipe
the unused space (NTFS) of a Win XP boot hard drive in use.
Old data that may still be there.
 
Tod said:
I've got a customer who needs a program that will wipe
the unused space (NTFS) of a Win XP boot hard drive in use.
Old data that may still be there.
Click to expand...

Look for Eraser -- it does what you want, and more.
 
Look for Eraser -- it does what you want, and more.
Click to expand...

I hope Eraser has been updated because the last time I used it on NTFS
to wipe free space after a reboot my system was screwed because it
couldn't find NTLDR. What I think happened is that Eraser wiped hidden
system files too.
 
Connected said:
I hope Eraser has been updated because the last time I used it on NTFS
to wipe free space after a reboot my system was screwed because it
couldn't find NTLDR. What I think happened is that Eraser wiped hidden
system files too.
Click to expand...

Works fine on my XP PRO SP2 PC, on my XP HE SP2 PC, and on one old W98SE PC.
(I don't happen to use it on the others.)

Any chance that your problem was cockpit error?
 
Previously Tod said:
I've got a customer who needs a program that will wipe
the unused space (NTFS) of a Win XP boot hard drive in use.
Old data that may still be there.
Click to expand...

Safest way is to do a file-wise backup of the partition (with a
software like "tar"), wipe the partition entirely and restore the
backup. With any other approach you cannot really be sure what you
get. The simplest programms will likely only wipe the free clusters,
just as filling the drive up with an all-zero file would do. More
advanced programms will also wipe the free space in clusters at the
end of files that do not have data in all secors. Still better
software will wipe old directory entries as well, but here it gets
really difficult.

The problem is finding out what a pice of software that claims
to wipe "all free space" actually does. Of course with the
backup-wipe-restore approach you still need to check that the
software used does not backup more than it is supposed to.

Arno
 
Arno said:
Safest way is to do a file-wise backup of the partition (with a
software like "tar"), wipe the partition entirely and restore the
backup. With any other approach you cannot really be sure what you
get. The simplest programms will likely only wipe the free clusters,
just as filling the drive up with an all-zero file would do. More
advanced programms will also wipe the free space in clusters at the
end of files that do not have data in all secors. Still better
software will wipe old directory entries as well, but here it gets
really difficult.

The problem is finding out what a pice of software that claims
to wipe "all free space" actually does. Of course with the
backup-wipe-restore approach you still need to check that the
software used does not backup more than it is supposed to.

Arno
Click to expand...

It is not all that hard to see what one of the wipers does, by using
a hex-editor to look at raw sectors before and after wiping. I did
that with Eraser, and it seems to do what it claims; but, I admit that
I only looked at a few sectors.
 
Previously Bob Willard said:
Arno Wagner wrote:
Click to expand...
It is not all that hard to see what one of the wipers does, by using
a hex-editor to look at raw sectors before and after wiping. I did
that with Eraser, and it seems to do what it claims; but, I admit that
I only looked at a few sectors.
Click to expand...

Well, personally, _I_ would do the same. But that does not qualify
as "easy" for the verage user.

Arno
 
Safest way is to do a file-wise backup of the partition (with a
software like "tar"), wipe the partition entirely and restore the backup.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately even that isnt reliable, essentially because XP
moves the files around on the drive in an attempt to speed
things up after its been running for a while on the new drive.

So some moved files will still have the earlier copy in the free space.
With any other approach you cannot really be sure what you get.
Click to expand...

You cant with yours either.
 
Any chance that your problem was cockpit error?
Click to expand...

Heh, that's always possible during long overnight PC sessions but have
you considered that maybe I was using an older version of Eraser that
was buggy? I told it to wipe free space on C:, afterwards NTLDR was
missing. Go figure.
 
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