Erasing Cluster tips

[Hezel]

What does the "cluster tips" option in Eraser exactly do? I tried to google but couldn't find the answer there. It is very slow, I tried to do a task overnight, when i woke up it didn't even finish cleaning cluster tips on drive C (20 gb). Is that normal?

Other question: Is erasing the hdd bad for its health? Because it is very intensive and so..

Thanks in advance!

 

[Overwriter]

Hi Hezel

What does the "cluster tips" option in Eraser exactly do?

Cluster tips is also know as file slack.

Here is a useful page explaining it.

http://www.forensics-intl.com/def6.html

It is very slow, I tried to do a task overnight, when i woke up it didn't even finish cleaning cluster tips on drive C (20 gb). Is that normal?

Can you just check to see what eraser method you are using ? A quicker and still very secure method would be the single random pass. I suspect you have yours set to Guttmanns.

Other question: Is erasing the hdd bad for its health? Because it is very intensive and so..

Only because you are using the disk, a good disk will be ok but a bad disk may fail. This is not due to Eraser but it is simply because you are using the disk more. Defragging a bad disk will make it fail so you could think of it in those terms.

 

[Hezel]

Hi Hezel

What does the "cluster tips" option in Eraser exactly do?

Cluster tips is also know as file slack.

Here is a useful page explaining it.

http://www.forensics-intl.com/def6.html

It is very slow, I tried to do a task overnight, when i woke up it didn't even finish cleaning cluster tips on drive C (20 gb). Is that normal?

Can you just check to see what eraser method you are using ? A quicker and still very secure method would be the single random pass. I suspect you have yours set to Guttmanns.

Other question: Is erasing the hdd bad for its health? Because it is very intensive and so..

Only because you are using the disk, a good disk will be ok but a bad disk may fail. This is not due to Eraser but it is simply because you are using the disk more. Defragging a bad disk will make it fail so you could think of it in those terms.

Thanks for the link!

I ran just the 3 passes, when i woke up it was still running it's first pass.

 

[Overwriter]

Hi

I ran just the 3 passes, when i woke up it was still running it's first pass.

Mmmm.. That does seem a long time.

Try selecting the single random pass and disable any unnecessary processes you might have running.