Drive cleaning

[Viridian]

Junk and unwanted remnants on my hard drive like tmp and system files drive me nuts so I would like to clean my hard drive using a combination of utilities like CCleaner and Defraggler.
In order to understand how the cleaning works, I have a few questions to ask.

In defragmentation, does Defraggler perform a complete transfer of data from one block to another, or does it copy the data from one block to another? I understand that deleting files only deletes the pointer but not the data itself, so I'd like to know if defragmenting behaves the same way. (Is defragmenting going to leave data on the old block and mark it as writable space?)
My next question is, how does Drive Wiper works? I intend to overwrite the free space on my hard drive. I read somewhere on the web that Drive Wiper replaces the data on the free space with all 0's, all 1's or random data. I would like a "factory reset" of the free space on my HD and would Drive Wiper accomplish this?
If I run Recuva after Defragmenting and Wiping, will it still detect the deleted files?
Any other tips on cleaning the hard drive?

 

[Yami]

(Is defragmenting going to leave data on the old block and mark it as writable space?)

Yes, defragging wouldn't overwite the old sectors. It's not what defragging is for and would roughly double the time defragging would take - and defragging is already a time-intensive process.

My next question is, how does Drive Wiper works? I intend to overwrite the free space on my hard drive. I read somewhere on the web that Drive Wiper replaces the data on the free space with all 0's, all 1's or random data. I would like a "factory reset" of the free space on my HD and would Drive Wiper accomplish this?

If this Drive Wiper has a "wipe free space" option, then it should accomplish that, yes. However, references to the deleted data such as recycler bin logs and thumbs.db files may still exist, so wiping free space isn't a perfect solution.

If I run Recuva after Defragmenting and Wiping, will it still detect the deleted files?

It shouldn't, but depending on the quality and thoroughness of the wiping program there may be stuff left. Also, while Recuva is IMO the best user-friendly recovery program, there are much more efficacious professional tools that would have a better chance of finding leftover data.

Any other tips on cleaning the hard drive?

Rinse thoroughly under boiling tungsten.

Or more seriously, the only way to really be sure is to completely wipe the drive using a multi-pass overwrite. The DoD standard is 3 passes I believe, but it's extremely rare that a single pass would be insufficient. At my job we are to wipe hard drives that may have had case data on them; the process has been through a long validation process which found that a single pass is sufficient.

Even then, data can be recovered from the HDD's cache (particularly on drives with customised firmware) and other locations using software, or if required, chip-off analysis.

 

[1etherer]

Defrag, rearranges the blocks so like you said, so in a way will transfer active data to the front blocks and leave empty blocks at the back, that way its easier and faster to read data and less chance of corruption as it doesnt have to look in lots of places to gather the data.

wiping a HDD with any tool like Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing will write random 0s and 1s the more passes (times you write the 0s and 1s) you do the less chance it can be recovered.

So to answer your question, if you use Recuva on a formatted harddrive (formatted with windows) it will still find the data, if you use a software like dban it has options to use more passes DoD or gutmann, and I highly doubt recuva would find the data.

Hope that makes sense

 

[Yami]

So to answer your question, if you use Recuva on a formatted harddrive (formatted with windows) it will still find the data, if you use a software like dban it has options to use more passes DoD or gutmann, and I highly doubt recuva would find the data.

Even professional-grade forensics tools won't find anything after a multi-pass DBAN wipe.

 

[MidnightShadow]

Even professional-grade forensics tools won't find anything after a multi-pass DBAN wipe.

Didn't DBAN sell out to Blancco? I also heard that they aren't going to keep up with the DBAN line anymore, which is a shame if that's true.

 

[Yami]

Didn't DBAN sell out to Blancco? I also heard that they aren't going to keep up with the DBAN line anymore, which is a shame if that's true.

No idea. Never used it myself

 

[MidnightShadow]

No idea. Never used it myself

Really? Great little software. Last time I used it was a couple of years ago. DOS based, but worked like a champ. I wonder how it does with SSDs, or if it even makes a difference. Sounds like a good reason to fire up my sandbox.

 

[Joe C]

wiping an SSD is not the same as with a platter drive, although it can wipe the drive, I've heard that a conventional wipe utility like dban could miss some areas. The best thing to wipe an SSD is to use a Secure Erase program made for an SSD

 

[Yami]

wiping an SSD is not the same as with a platter drive, although it can wipe the drive, I've heard that a conventional wipe utility like dban could miss some areas. The best thing to wipe an SSD is to use a Secure Erase program made for an SSD

^ This.

 

[MidnightShadow]

Definitely going to sandbox this one in the near future... I just happened upon two older Samsung 128GB drives, one of which actually needs to be wiped.