HD Deep clean?
 

You know how when you delete or uninstal something from your pc and no matter how many traces of it you send to your recycle bin and empty, there are still some traces left of it deep in your machine's HD?

Well I remember on downloads.com there was a free programme which allowed you to do a really deep clean of all your deleted and uninstalled crap and free up loads of space on your HD. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, does anyone know of it or another such programme? It was nothing to do with going in to the registry or anything, you'd just press a button and it did it all for you...

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Wasnt that called format.com ? :D

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

not sure about that , how about a zero fill program , i know maxtor do one ;)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

I use this http://www.freewarehome.com/ quite often to try out different app I night need
You might find the one you are thinking off or something else?:)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

plenty of apps do it try the software made by ibm for their drives (hitachi do it now i think)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

When you delete something, it does indeed remain on your HD, but the space it used is marked as free. This space will then get used whenever the OS requires it. Therefore, I'm not sure how a 'deep cleaning' program could free up loads of space, as in practice, it's already free. :confused:

Some space can be gained (though usually not a lot) by removing files previously uninstalled programmes left behind, which are now not needed. I used to use a program called WinOptimizer (for Windows) to do this - I think you may have to pay to use it now though :( . However, you were talking about freeing up space from deleted files - this is different, as these files still reside on your system, having never been deleted.

The only other thing I can think of is file shredding, where traces of deleted data are removed from the HD by repeatedly writing random bits over them. Again, this will free up no extra HD space (though, if you are bothered about security, you should do this before you ever sell your computer or HD, just to remove the slight possibility of someone finding your old personal data/passwords etc - just formatting the drive actually leaves all the data on it!!).

Hope the helps. :)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

It wasn't Ashampoo Win Optimizer by any chance. This was a popular utility for doing what you want although there are many more.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

that was what I thought Russ meant - redundant DLL's & the like?

<edit> I use jv16 power tools - again you have to pay, now, but it doesn't do the internet optimisation stuff that WinOptimizer does, the registry tool is brilliant, though.:)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

You could run the Windows Clean Up util in the system tools menu then a defrag ?

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

or get a 14lb sledgehammer if you are really paranoid :D :D :D :D

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

I find wiping a large magnet over the hard drive usually works.. :D:D:D

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

*Wonders what Russ is trying to hide. Could it be that mild mannered Russ is actually Mr Big?

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

here you go russ , this should do it :D :D :D :D

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

No, just Mr-parents-only-have-a-crappy-little-4Gb-HD-and-is-looking-to-clear-as-much-space-on-it-as-possible :D

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Or maybe Russ D is a pseudonym for Lex Luthor, and he needs to wipe off old plans for defeating Superman.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

40GB disks & larger are dead cheap - maybe that route would be better?:)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

funny i was thinking that as well , at least if the mobo will support it :D :D

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Surely you could just buy a bigger HDD a 40GB drive would only be about £40 brand new and i'm sure you could get a smaller or second-hand one for cheaper...

EDIT: Ok, everyone beat me to it...

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

if you want a proper hdd wipe use PGP free disk wipe, www.pgpi.org you dont need a licence for personal use.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

I'm just going the cheapskate's route - plus they wouldn't need as much as 40Gb - just an extra 1 or 2 :)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Yeah, gotta agree... the price of GB per £ is astonishing value for money nowadays. Ebuyer have some great deals on Western Digital - 80GB for £43 or 80GB Seagate Barracuda (much better imho) for only £47 inc VAT :) :) :)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Said in a strong yorkshire accent:

"In my day, we used to dream of 'avin a 4 Gig 'ard drive".

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Luxury, we used to dream of 'avin a 4gb 'ard drive. In fact I've still got a 40MEG IDE drive somewhere sitting around gathering dust.. I wonder if I can flog it on eBay for a stupid amount, claiming its something like a 'collectors item' ;)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

While posting a link to another part of the forum (Alternatives to NTL) searching the website i came across this utility SuperShreader (wondered if it would be any use) :)

When you delete a file from your system (and remove it from your Recycle Bin) the contents can still be retrieved by someone who is knows what they're doing - they can even potentially recover data that's been overwritten! Now this doesn't really matter if you're just deleting some unused Word documents, but if you deal with sensitive data such as encrypted information, then it's VERY important that these files be securely deleted... That's where AnalogX SuperShredder comes in!
SuperShredder gives you the ability to delete files using not only common methods such as Gutmann & NISPOM (DoD), but can be completely customized to give you all the security and/or performance you may need. It can receive files via drag-&-drop onto the application or the icon, selecting files from inside the program, command line, & can even add a shortcut to your 'Send To' menu inside the Windows Explorer so it's simple to delete files in a secure & convenient fashion.

SuperShreader

Btw the web site is littered with interesting utils :)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

How do you tell what mfr you disks are? Do you need to crack the case open?

How many HDDs can you put in a case?

Would I be better adding more storage to an antique 6Gb Celeron 90 and turning it into a file server?

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

*slaps scastle REALLY hard

we cant help our accent :cry:

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Nothing wrong with the accent. You've obviously never heard the Monty Python sketch I was copying?

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

How come noone has suggested washing it with soap and water? :D

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

im a bit young for monty python :)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

LOL - I used to love monty python.....

The parot scetch is my personal favorate ! :)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

My OEM drive had the Seagate logo on it, so it was easy to tell ;)

My Maxtor drive I bought myself, so I knew what I was getting :D

The number of HDDs you can put in your PC is restricted by the physical space inside your case (my first case only had enough room for one HDD) :(
and also how many devices you have connectd to your IDE cables, ie CD-Rom, DVD drive, etc... - unless you're using SCSI in which case you can up to 15 HDDs chained together, iirc.

Hope that helps :)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Good advice....

P.S. Dont forget it can be up to 31 with scsi III

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

OK my case has two SATA 7200 80Gb HDDs and a CD RW and a DVD RW.

How many devices can you connecto to an IDE cable? Am I right in thinking that SATA must be connected to an IDE cable not a SCSI cable?

Oh and an FDD. The case is a mid tower sized (Nokia 8850 4-Bay ATX Tower Case with 450W Power Supply), I'm pretty sure there is room for some more HDDs in it.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

SATA goes to its own connector on the motherboard and nothing to do with any IDE or SCSI connections. If you have SATA and ide on a board then you could connect 8 devices. 4 hdd's on the SATA in stipe+mirror mode ( if raid is available ) and 4 on the ide !

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Thanks, so I can get myself another identical HDD and a, say 100Gb HDD put the Idenitcal one on the SATA and RAID5 (instead of the current 0) should reduce the mean time to failiure and mean I can be more lazy about backups.

The 100Gb can be used for backup, put in the other PC as a storage device etc.

I imagine this will mean a complete reinstall of the OS and rebuild?

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Actually I wouldn't mind knowing how to irreversibly remove data from HDD's, I have three 40 gig drives I want to sell on ebay, they had all sorts of bits on like my Internet Banking details, FTP addresses/passwords for work etc. I know you can un-fdisk and un-format and retrieve all manner of deleted files quite easily so I wouldn't mind finding something to wipe it all permenantly

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

As far as I am aware you cant have raid 5 on SATA.... I thought that it was a SCSI only thing...

Perhaps you mean 0+1 or stripe+mirror - this uses 4 identical drives.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Raid 5 is available on SATA. In fact, there are LOADS of cards that offer it.

e.g. http://www.gamers-depot.com/hardware...t/1540/002.htm

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

The only way to realistically remove all data is to write the entire disk with 1's and 0's and do this at least three times to remove all magnetic traces of the data that are left. Once would be enough to stop the average person from accessing any data but not enough to stop the determined chap who knows what he is doing.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Well you learn something new every day !!!!

Do you need 5 drives using 1 for parity as you do on scsi ?

Edit - hmmmm only 4 drives on the card you linked to... How do you run raid 5 ???

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

What would I use to do that? Bear in mind the drives are all by different manufacturers.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Raid 5 can be implemented with 3 disks, two data disks and a parity disk (effectivly)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

Cant see the point in that myself :)

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

There are a number of commercially available programs that can do this, many with an evaluation period which is all you need to wipe the drives ready for resale. Do a google search on wiping all information from hard drives. You can write a batch file to do this for you but this normally leaves a few areas unwiped.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

What would you recommend then? 0+1 has a 50% greater overhead, mirroring a 0 requires another pair of HDDs.

Or would you recommned I just get another 160Gb HDD and use that for more data and backup, leaving the current R0 as is, sounds a lot easier.

I probably have about 70Gb of files on the PC that need backing up as they are not stored elswehere or would be annoying to recreate (in the case of the iTunes MyMusic folder). Video is stored on the original tapes and edited footage is also streamed back to tape as the space is cheap.

Pity camcorders won't allow you to send data to a tape. Would be a great backup device.

Re: HD Deep clean?
 

I would use 0+1 myself... You will get the best of both worlds. Yes its expensive but you get what you pay for.....

BTW... - you can use digicam tapes as backup devices. I have seen software about that will let you do this if you have firewire.