diskpart.exe
list disk
select disk #
clean all
exit
jaclaz as ever, first, thanks for your answer 😉
Then, my doubts ?
I am not sure if I am expressing correctly myself of, certainly, I am totally wrong and misunderstanding diferent ideas
I think that a drive , for example called D is like a partition of the main hard disk installed in your computer. Of course that drive is not the entire hard disk, as it has also other partitions, called with other letters.
At this link you can see the screen of ccleaner I am mentioning, for -supposedly- securely erasing whatever drive or external disk
http//
If my computer´s hard disk, has two partitions named with some letters, then if I connect/plug via USB an external different hard drive I want to totally erase, then, other different letter appears called, for example "F", that is the external hard drive, with its properties size, NFTS or FAT32, used and unudsed space, etc. Then,If I select to erase THIS entire disk, I think I am erasing/overwritting the entire external hard drive called "F". Of course not the main hard drive of my computer.
The same, if I connect via USB a pendrive.
Is this correct, or am I wrong?
Thanks
this screen shows only the option of wiping free space on disk, but I select a second one wiping the entire disk.
No.
A drive letter is assigned to a drive.
CCleaner's scrrenshots talk about drive.
The drive is NOT the disk.
Since you mention "partition", you are familiar (loosely) with this concept.
In a simplified way, a drive is a partition.
Or if you prefer drive letters are assigned to partitions and NOT to disks.
Even better, if you wipe a drive, you only wipe a part of the disk (the drive or partition) AND NOT the WHOLE disk.
In the case of your internal hard disk, you have a disk that is partitioned in (at least) two parts, that get drive letters (say) C and D (and possibly you have E assigned to a CD/DVD drive).
If you wipe C, you are NOT wiping D.
If you wipe D, you are NOT wiping C.
And there are more areas of the disk that you CANNOT access through a drive letter.
jaclaz
No.
A drive letter is assigned to a drive.
CCleaner's scrrenshots talk about drive.
The drive is NOT the disk.In the case of your internal hard disk, you have a disk that is partitioned in (at least) two parts, that get drive letters (say) C and D (and possibly you have E assigned to a CD/DVD drive).
If you wipe C, you are NOT wiping D.
If you wipe D, you are NOT wiping C.And there are more areas of the disk that you CANNOT access through a drive letter.
jaclaz
Yes, I understand that. But then What happens with an external hard drive(a different disk to that running on my computer), connected via USB, totally formatted, let´s say, 120GB capacity, only occupied by its filesystem. When I connect to the main compuer, the external disk appears as F and it appears empty, showing the small portion occupied by the filesystem, and the free part. Then I run ccleaner and select "Erase entire disk" ,which supposedly erase safely a hard drive; select the type of overwritting, 1, 3, 7 passes.A warning of all data will be deleted is displayed. When this task is completed, a message appears the disk has been successfully erased". If this procedure is cnot correct and what is deleted is a PART of the external USM mass storage HDD. Then…How is an external hard disk erased?
Is the same when you plug a pendrive on your computer the entire pendrive appears as F on your computer, as it it were a partition more.
In any case, ccleaner, or Eraser, purposedly states that if you want to erase, wipe an external USB mass storage HDD, that is you should do plug it via USB to your computer, select the letter matching to that HDD, removable disk, and run thr ovewritting options. If this is not the correct procedure, then I don´t know…
The ways I have available to trying to explain you how a disk is NOT a synonym of drive (and how these terms are NOT exchangeable, or not always exchangeable) are near to an end.
The device is called hard disk drive.
A floppy disk drive is (and always has been) at the same time a disk and a drive.
For historical reasons ONCE UPON a time disk drive = disk = drive.
The good MS guys AT THE TIME had ONLY floppy disk drives.
So they decided to assign a drive letter to a drive (or to a disk device - at THAT time the terms were exchangeable).
Then came hard disk drives.
Initially they were nothing but high capacity drives (behaving exactly like floppies) so that assigning drive letters to them still made sense.
Then they started having partitioned (or partitionable) hard disk drives.
At THAT EXACT MOMENT a drive letter was not anymore assigned to a disk drive (as it was before) but rather to a logical drive (or partition, or volume).
CCLeaner and Eraser are TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PROGRAMS with possibly DIFFERENT capabilities AND consequently DIFFERENT intended targets.
CCleaner has the drive (or partition or volume or filesystem) as target.
NOWHERE in CCleaner interface the term "disk" is shown, ONLY the term "drive" is.
As well Eraser has the drive (or partition or volume or filesystem) as target.
The good guys that make Eraser use indifferently and "thoughtlessly" "inaccurate terms" such as
"hard drive"
"hard disk"
"disk"
in different contexts* does not change the way the program works.
I will repeat, the targets of CCleaner or Eraser are the drive (and NOT the disk), but possibly the latter can also "do" the disk.
Read (attentively) this
http//
DBAN is an example of a tool that has the disk as target
http//
Can you understand this difference?
jaclaz
*My personal opinion that Eraser is a senseless piece of bloat, needing .Net to do (slower) something that a number of programs can do better and faster represents a mere side note.
Thanks for your answer. I think I am understanding.
DBAN is intended for the entire hard disk in your PC. So that is not valid for me, as I want to erase some external devices, like this
http//
whatever name it has, that is the external device I want to erase.
The link you posted says
"variant on this theme, if you have another computer, is to remove the drives from the old machine, put them[ in turn into a caddy connected to your other computer, and use Eraser to erase the contents of the root folder of the attached drive (i.e. everything), and then quick format the drive and erase all free space to be sure. This too is a lengthy process."
It seems it referes to which I do first format -unmarking quick format- a full format and then run overwritting over the external device. am I doing correctly for fully erase the external device?
Totally understood "a hard disk is a physical disk which can be used to store a large amount of information using magnetic patterns, in a similar way to audio cassettes and video tapes, except that a hard disk is quite a lot smaller, and yet can store an incredible amount of information. In fact, hard disks tend to be a collection of several disks all stacked done above the other like a multi storey car park.
A hard drive, on the other hand, is the whole unit in which a hard disk is just one part. The hard disk, or the different layers or platters which make up a hard disk, requires turning."
Now, as DBAN is not valid for me, as it erases all Pc´s data, and what I want is to delete all personal information contained in the kind of device whose picture I sent in my previous post(or a USN flash memory), am I correct when using for example cleaner, selecting the unit matching to that deice and overwritting it?
Thanks