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Used space in old erased overwritten HDD?

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(@williamsonn)
Posts: 85
Trusted Member
Topic starter
 

I have tried to erase and overwritten(ccleaner 7 passes)a 20GB old hard drive, however, 90MB are still used -according "properties". I have activated(folder properties) "show hidden system folders", and the only one which appearing is Recycle Bin( around 4MB).No other. Is this a Restore point, or might be the disc is not correctly erased?
If it is a Restore point, how could I totally erase these near 100MB? thank you very much.

 
Posted : 17/10/2012 4:52 pm
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

I have tried to erase and overwritten(ccleaner 7 passes)a 20GB old hard drive, however, 90MB are still used -according "properties". I have activated(folder properties) "show hidden system folders", and the only one which appearing is Recycle Bin( around 4MB).No other. Is this a Restore point, or might be the disc is not correctly erased?
If it is a Restore point, how could I totally erase these near 100MB? thank you very much.

Well, if you have a recycle Bin on it, you also have a filesystem on it, and the filesystem structures do (obviously) occupy some space.
Try opening that disk in (example) DMDE
http//softdm.com/
and you will see….
And of course overwriting/wiping with more than a single pass is completely UNneeded.

jaclaz

 
Posted : 17/10/2012 5:16 pm
(@mscotgrove)
Posts: 938
Prominent Member
 

Do a Full format with Windows 7 (or Vista) This will wipe the disk (once, which as jaclaz says is all you need). It will then add the file system.

If you use FAT32 it will be clear where the file system sectors are stored, FAT and root directory only.

 
Posted : 17/10/2012 6:44 pm
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

Do a Full format with Windows 7 (or Vista) This will wipe the disk (once, which as jaclaz says is all you need). It will then add the file system.

If you use FAT32 it will be clear where the file system sectors are stored, FAT and root directory only.

… and you will have again some space occupied by the filesystem. wink

If you want a "completely empty" disk, you must not partition/format it, i.e. have NO filesystems on the disk - or if you prefer you add nothing to it (but then how exactly will you access it to see if it is empty)? 😯

jaclaz

 
Posted : 18/10/2012 12:45 am
(@williamsonn)
Posts: 85
Trusted Member
Topic starter
 

I have been using these mentiones harddrives for storing some music and then I have been again thinking on the same question. You mentiones that the occupied space was due to the filesystem required for the drive works properly, now, I wonder this

1-Are not the mentioned space(around 100MB for a 20GB hard disc)excessive for a filesystem?

2-If you erase totally overwritting a hard drive, 1 pass, What happens with the space occupied by the filesystem is it also overwritten before being again occupied by those archives?

thanks

 
Posted : 29/01/2013 5:21 am
(@williamsonn)
Posts: 85
Trusted Member
Topic starter
 

By th way, now, despite the "show hidden folders" option is activated I can,t see not even the recycle bin.

 
Posted : 29/01/2013 5:24 am
(@csericks)
Posts: 99
Trusted Member
 

What are the HDD specs (Make/Model)?

When you say "erase," do you mean the file system, the partition, or the whole HDD?

If you are trying to erase the whole HDD, boot from a linux CD and use "dd" as in the following link

How to erase a hard disk

 
Posted : 29/01/2013 5:32 am
(@williamsonn)
Posts: 85
Trusted Member
Topic starter
 

It is an IBM SATA disk, 12 years old. 5GB.

By saying "Erase", I mean, first I formated it with Windows 7( not quick format), then I usedccleaner and selected option "delete all the disk" I used 7 passes(This was before I learnt that only one had been enough).

 
Posted : 29/01/2013 7:17 am
(@williamsonn)
Posts: 85
Trusted Member
Topic starter
 

Now I am seeing again the $recycle bin

 
Posted : 29/01/2013 7:54 am
TuckerHST
(@tuckerhst)
Posts: 175
Estimable Member
 

Williamsonn, seeing files in the recycle bin doesn't mean all data hasn't been wiped. It's simply an artifact of CCleaner's wiping methodology. If you're curious about what CCleaner does, check out David Cowen's anti-anti-forensics presentation (related to his $LOGFILE research).

If you want absolutely nothing to remain on the drive, try using Diskpart, select the drive (be very careful to select the correct drive!) and use "clean all." This will overwrite the entire drive, including the partition table. No file system left, therefore no recycle bin, no $logfile, etc.

 
Posted : 29/01/2013 8:06 am
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