Wipe free Space

[Katreena]

I have a question I'm trying to free up space on my c drive so that I can run avi movies faster. there is an option called wipe free space. I want to do it but I'm really not sure if it means that by doing so I will wipe all the files of my hard drive even the ones I need to run the programs properly. can someone tell me what it means please
thanks a bunch
Katreena

[BoF]

Re: Wipe free Space

Originally posted by Katreena
I'm trying to free up space on my c drive so that I can run avi movies faster.

???
the only thing you can do is a defrag of your drive but you wont run avi movies "faster".

[setarip]

"I'm trying to free up space on my c drive"

The safe way to do this is either SELECTIVELY delete files (data and/or programs) that you are CERTAIN you no longer need - or compress them...

[Enchanter]

Disabling System Restore and reducing the amount of Virtual Memory assigned to the system can see a significant reduction in used space.

[WildmanJoe]

The informatioin stored on your hdd is known as virtual memory, meaning that even if you delete something off your hdd, the sector (address) on your hdd at which your wrote it still contains the information until it is over-written by other data. Thus, the data can still be retrieved by external file recovery programs.

The term wipe free space means to write over all the 'empty' space on your hdd with zeroes. This is to securely delete data without the probability of recovering it. This is usually done through using different wipe algorithms.

Btw, which program offers this option? I don't remember Windows ever having this option.

[Kimball]

Originally posted by WildmanJoe
(deleted)

Btw, which program offers this option? I don't remember Windows ever having this option.

Bestcrypt by Jetico, it has a number of settings allowing for multiple pass deletes and/or wipes.

[rsquirell]

I had Kermlin on my old 95...does anyone know of any decent wipe freeware for XP?

[Katreena]

Thanks for the help I really do appreciate it.
Katreena

[setarip]

To Katreena

So, what did you do?

[Katreena]

I actually tried the different things you guy suggested and ended up trashing my Ip proxy thingy or something like that so I had to revert my whole c drive so know I'm back to square one. thanks for the help but the truth is I'm not a very good computer tech person I just know all basic stuff like the softwares all the other stuff is uncharted territory and I don't think I'm gonna ever go there agian thanks again
Katreena

[SKD_Tech]

Trial and error at least you know not to do that anymore

[WildmanJoe]

To RSquirrel,

try:

http://www.freebyte.com/security/#fdsecurity

http://www.freebyte.com/filediskutils/

[WildmanJoe]

Actually there's nothing wrong with wiping free space, it's more for security than getting back free space. Just don't tell the wiping program to wipe your Windows directory or something and it should go smoothly.

[Katreena]

well I didn't know that and that's what happened so I'm not so sure if I wanna try it agian. I'm just looking for a uncomplicated way to get more space on my hard drive and it seems like I'm not gonna be able to find it.

[rsquirell]

Wildmanjoe: Thanks.....Katrina: I just got roadrunner and have been crazily downloading movies again. I noticed I lost 2GB on C drive even though I was sending all saved attachments to F drive. Found a .DAT in Agent that was 2GB and deleted it. Sometimes programs build temporary files, so poke around. If a program is 2MB at installation and now it's 1GB find the temp file and delete it. Enchanter had an interesting suggestion about disabling system restore...I must have 10-15 system restore files in the windows registry. I wonder how many are actually necessary.