Winning hard disk space

[Bill Ridgeway]

I have just done a security wipe of my hard disk. Immediately before the
security wipe 15.7Gb of the hard disk was used. Immediately afterwards this
had reduced to 12Gb. A gain of nearly 4Gb is a substantial 25%. I am
curious to find out why either why the original usage figure was bloated or
why a capacity has genuinely been won. any ideas please?

Bill Ridgeway

 

[Gerry]

Bill

Please clarify what you mean by "security wipe"?


--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

Filling unused space with 0s & 1s

Bill Ridgeway

Bill

Please clarify what you mean by "security wipe"?


--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[JS]

And you didn't delete any files prior to or include any
files as part of the wipe?

 

[Gerry]

Bill

That is a curious result.

Where are you getting the figures from? Figures are misreported in
places like Windows Explorer!

--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

As I have said there was 15.7Gb used (according to Windows Explorer)
immediately before the secure wipe and 12.0Gb (according to Windows
Explorer) immediately after the security wipe. This isn't a one-off. I've
noticed this effect on several occasions.

I would accept a small discrepancy but this isn't a small discrepancy.

Bill Ridgeway

 

[JS]

What software are you using to perform the wipe?

 

[Leythos]

As I have said there was 15.7Gb used (according to Windows Explorer)
immediately before the secure wipe and 12.0Gb (according to Windows
Explorer) immediately after the security wipe. This isn't a one-off. I've
noticed this effect on several occasions.

And you've not given anyone a clue as to what a "Secure Wipe" is, what
product was used, what methods the product uses, or what the product
deletes...

 

[Gerry]

Bill

Reconciling disk space used and free disk space does not work as there
are factors Windows Explorer misreports.

Compressed files are reported as their original size before
compression whereas their size on disk is less. This causes problems
trying to reconcile space used plus free disk space with the size of
the hard disk.

Norton Protected Storage and Rollback can stay invisible.

Are you using any utilities e.g. Norton Ghost to back up or image files
on your drive?

Do you use the Hibernation feature? How large is hiberfil.sys. This is a
hidden file like the contents of the System Volume Information folder.
It needs to go into your reconcilation.

One way sometimes to discover the existence of larger hidden files is
that they can be revealed in the Most Fragmented Files list in a Disk
Defragmenter Report. Of course the files need to be fragmented to be
seen but those of significant size usually are if the disk needs to be
defragmented. Sometimes these files can be so large there is not
sufficient contiguous free space to be able to totally defragment them.

 

[Bill Ridgeway]

Advanced System Optimizer

Bill Ridgeway

What software are you using to perform the wipe?

 

[JS]

More than a simple "secure wipe", this utility has the following:
Cleans your hard disk files making your PC run better and faster without
crashes !!
Registry Cleaner to clear invalid registry entries.
Registry defragger to fine tune your Windows System Registry.
Privacy Protector to clean internet history, cookies, cache, and any hidden
tracks kept by Windows.
System files backup and restore with single click.

I have not used it but would think that it's also doing some
cleaning/deleting of more than just
files you have selected to securely wipe. Check for option to turn on or off
some of the features
like the Registry Cleaner as this could cause more problems than any disk
space it frees up.

 

[Gerry]

Bill

Advanced System Optimizer. A Registry Cleaner. Most users in these
newsgroups would not have any Registry Cleaner on their computer. Who
can say what it has done!

--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Paul]

Advanced System Optimizer

Bill Ridgeway

Compare it to the system "cipher" utility, cipher /w

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypting_File_System

Check in Help & Support, for cipher syntax.

Then see whether cipher has the same side
effects as your new utility.

It is also possible, cipher is only in WinXP Pro. So if you
have WinXP Home, you might try checking the i386 folder, to see if
it is there. My Pro installer CD has CIPHER.EX_ in the i386
folder, which is a compressed copy of the utility.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php?t7591.html

How to use Cipher.exe to overwrite deleted data in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814599

So that is a possible alternative.

Paul

 

[Leythos]

Advanced System Optimizer

Maybe the features related to things other than Security Wiping have
something to do with the recovered space...

Maybe this was a spam and we all just feel for it?

 

[Ian D]

Maybe the features related to things other than Security Wiping have
something to do with the recovered space...

Maybe this was a spam and we all just feel for it?



--
You can't trust your best friends, your five senses, only the little
voice inside you that most civilians don't even hear -- Listen to that.
Trust yourself.
(e-mail address removed) (remove 999 for proper email address)

One thing I was thinking about is the 12% of disk space reserved
for system restore. It's reserved, but the unused portion can be
released if the disk fills up and needs the space. I know that
Diskeeper and other well behaved apps will recognize that space,
and not interfere with it. Maybe that disk wipe program does not
recognize the system restore space, and wipes and releases it.
The 4GB recovered would be about right for a 40GB drive or
partition.