Wipe free space
 

In preparation of donating an old computer, I'm interested in permanently
wiping free disk space. Any recommendations for a good free utility that not
only shreds files but also wipes available free space.

Thanks in advance and Happy Easter.

Dan

Wipe free space
 

Dan, try Googling. The first hit I came across was Eraser at :-
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php

Never tried it so don't know how effective it is - but it is FREE

Mart


"Dapper Dan" wrote in message
...
In preparation of donating an old computer, I'm interested in permanently
wiping free disk space. Any recommendations for a good free utility that
not only shreds files but also wipes available free space.

Thanks in advance and Happy Easter.

Dan

Wipe free space
 

Thanks Mart. I started out via the Google route, but before downloading and
using one I thought it prudent to ask. I'm ready to experiment but if I can
use someone else's experience, it may save me a lot of aggravation.

Thanks again Mart, I appreciate your help.

Dan
"Mart" wrote in message
...
Dan, try Googling. The first hit I came across was Eraser at :-
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php

Never tried it so don't know how effective it is - but it is FREE

Mart


"Dapper Dan" wrote in message
...
In preparation of donating an old computer, I'm interested in permanently
wiping free disk space. Any recommendations for a good free utility that
not only shreds files but also wipes available free space.

Thanks in advance and Happy Easter.

Dan

Wipe free space
 

Dapper Dan wrote:

Thanks Mart. I started out via the Google route, but before
downloading and using one I thought it prudent to ask. I'm ready to
experiment but if I can use someone else's experience, it may save me
a lot of aggravation.
Thanks again Mart, I appreciate your help.

Sorry I can't help Dan other than to suggest using Google which you have
already done. I've used BING to write zeros to entire drives but have
never attempted to do this to unused parts of a partition where I want to
retain the files. Defragging the drive doesn't really seem to help either
as I have found in the past that I have been able to recover deleted files
where the drive has subsequently been defragged albeit that was on a
system where the file system was NTFS.
--
Mike Maltby

Wipe free space
 

Dan,

I've used Eraser 5.82 with no problems. There were problems with
versions 5.8 and 5.81, but both the SourceForge and Heidi web sites have
long pulled those versions.

Tom

Dapper Dan wrote:
Thanks Mart. I started out via the Google route, but before downloading and
using one I thought it prudent to ask. I'm ready to experiment but if I can
use someone else's experience, it may save me a lot of aggravation.

Thanks again Mart, I appreciate your help.

Dan
"Mart" wrote in message
...
Dan, try Googling. The first hit I came across was Eraser at :-
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php

Never tried it so don't know how effective it is - but it is FREE

Mart


"Dapper Dan" wrote in message
...
In preparation of donating an old computer, I'm interested in permanently
wiping free disk space. Any recommendations for a good free utility that
not only shreds files but also wipes available free space.

Thanks in advance and Happy Easter.

Dan

Wipe free space
 

Thanks Mike.

I think I'll experiment this weekend. It's not like I have much to lose
given it no longer gets used. If something stupid happens, I can always
repartition; it's just that because it's an OEM, I have no disks to reload.

Regards

Dan


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
Dapper Dan wrote:

Thanks Mart. I started out via the Google route, but before
downloading and using one I thought it prudent to ask. I'm ready to
experiment but if I can use someone else's experience, it may save me
a lot of aggravation.
Thanks again Mart, I appreciate your help.

Sorry I can't help Dan other than to suggest using Google which you have
already done. I've used BING to write zeros to entire drives but have
never attempted to do this to unused parts of a partition where I want to
retain the files. Defragging the drive doesn't really seem to help either
as I have found in the past that I have been able to recover deleted files
where the drive has subsequently been defragged albeit that was on a
system where the file system was NTFS.
--
Mike Maltby

Wipe free space
 

Dapper Dan wrote:
In preparation of donating an old computer, I'm interested in permanently
wiping free disk space. Any recommendations for a good free utility that not
only shreds files but also wipes available free space.

Thanks in advance and Happy Easter.

Dan



You can use the floppy download from your hard drive manufacturer's web
site to write zeros on the drive. It takes hours.

Alias

Wipe free space
 

Thanks for your feedback, Tom. I'll get on to this tomorrow and will come
back with a brief summary of my experience.

Dan
"TomV" wrote in message
...
Dan,

I've used Eraser 5.82 with no problems. There were problems with versions
5.8 and 5.81, but both the SourceForge and Heidi web sites have long
pulled those versions.

Tom

Dapper Dan wrote:
Thanks Mart. I started out via the Google route, but before downloading
and using one I thought it prudent to ask. I'm ready to experiment but if
I can use someone else's experience, it may save me a lot of aggravation.

Thanks again Mart, I appreciate your help.

Dan
"Mart" wrote in message
...
Dan, try Googling. The first hit I came across was Eraser at :-
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php

Never tried it so don't know how effective it is - but it is FREE

Mart


"Dapper Dan" wrote in message
...
In preparation of donating an old computer, I'm interested in
permanently wiping free disk space. Any recommendations for a good free
utility that not only shreds files but also wipes available free space.

Thanks in advance and Happy Easter.

Dan

Wipe free space
 

Dan,


There seem to be a spate of coincidences here lately! One is that I found
the
cover disc CD I originally got DestroyIt!2000 from, back in 2000/1. Besides
having long-since realised there's no need to overwrite freespace -
except perhaps in the situation you describe - I found that it was one of
those progs that stopped SR working. I remember reporting it to Mike -
probably in systemtools.

How good it is, I don't know. I thought it was good at the time but that's
almost meaningless, I knew so little then! Presumably it does work
since it stopped SR working because basically it writes a series of files to
the HDD, which are
deleted on reboot. Only in doing so free space goes below the critical 300MB
required for SR, which then flushes and turns itself off. For Win ME, for a
user wishing to use SR, DestroyIt!2000 was a prog written for Win 98 that
dated rapidly! Of course, if one is getting rid of ME it doesn't matter if
one flushes
the RPs.

Whether you could find DestroyIt!2000 now, I don't know. Whether it's small
enough to e-mail to you via dial-up, I don't know. The CD is outdoors, in
the 'trash', albeit in a bag that contains no organic
waste (and which I've already been down once to retrieve an old copy of
another prog!).

Shane


Dapper Dan wrote:
Thanks Mike.

I think I'll experiment this weekend. It's not like I have much to
lose given it no longer gets used. If something stupid happens, I can
always repartition; it's just that because it's an OEM, I have no
disks to reload.
Regards

Dan


"Mike M" wrote in message
...
Dapper Dan wrote:

Thanks Mart. I started out via the Google route, but before
downloading and using one I thought it prudent to ask. I'm ready to
experiment but if I can use someone else's experience, it may save
me a lot of aggravation.
Thanks again Mart, I appreciate your help.

Sorry I can't help Dan other than to suggest using Google which you
have already done. I've used BING to write zeros to entire drives
but have never attempted to do this to unused parts of a partition
where I want to retain the files. Defragging the drive doesn't
really seem to help either as I have found in the past that I have
been able to recover deleted files where the drive has subsequently
been defragged albeit that was on a system where the file system was
NTFS. --
Mike Maltby

Wipe free space
 

Alias wrote:

You can use the floppy download from your hard drive manufacturer's
web site to write zeros on the drive. It takes hours.

And will, of course, wipe everything rather than just the free space which
as I understand it is Dan's requirement.
--
Mike Maltby