Regaining disk space

A

addy

New Member
I'm new to this forum and the main reason I'm looking for an erasing program is to regain lost disk space more so than secure deletion of files. Would Eraser do this for me, and would I be right in thinking that I would need to perform a free space wipe in order to accomplish this?
Any help would be gratefully received.

Many thanks
 
Hi addy

You will not gain extra space by using Eraser. Eraser overwrites the already deleted area on a drive unless you select a particular file to erase.

A program such as CCleaner will remove junk files from your drive.

Here is the link.
http://www.ccleaner.com/
 
Thanks for your reply Overwriter,

I've used East-Tec Eraser in the past which has freed up space considerably while deleting previously deleted files. I don't used the software anymore as I've found the later versions not so good. So I was hoping that Eraser would do the same, which it did to some extent.... I gained 0.2GB back on a fairly clean 20GB disk.

I use CCleaner all the time... it's great software.
 
Hi addy

I was hoping that Eraser would do the same, which it did to some extent.... I gained 0.2GB back on a fairly clean 20GB disk.
Click to expand...

I am surprised at this. I would suspect however that you probably emptied the recycle bin rather than deleting any useless / tracking / temp files etc.

Perhaps you should ask Garret directly about this as I have no explanation as to why you should gain disk space after Eraser.
 
Thanks for your reply Overwriter,

I ran CCleaner before I ran Eraser and noted down the used and free space before and after the Eraser run. I definitely regained some space.

I'm not sure how I ask Garret directly but it would be interesting to know if other users have experienced the same.

Thanks for your help on this.
 
Hi addy

I really can’t explain how you gained freespace with eraser. As for asking Garret I guess we just have to wait and hope he reads this thread. :wink:

Just out of interest I use East Tec Eraser 2007 and I was interested in your comment that it was no longer much good. Could you please tell me what you found about it ?

Thanks.
 
Hi Overwriter,

I too have East Tec Eraser 2007. As you know my main objective with these erase programs is to grab back some space. I found that ETE 2007 worked fine for me on my PC running Vista but on another PC running XP I lost disk space after the erase. I was unable to find the TMP files anywhere to delete them, even with the help of tech support, and had to run an earlier version of the software in order to get my free space back. This was the only reason for me saying that the program wasn't much good, sorry if I have misled you. However, I have no idea how good it is as far as secure file deletion goes.

Getting back to recovering disk space, it would seem that I am not alone. I found this user comment under Opinions on Erasers home page...

"It completely erases any trace of previously deleted files from your hard drive, and gives you back space." :wink:
 
Hi addy

Thank you for the ETE info.

As for Eraser “gaining” more space I still cannot understand it. Sure if you delete the contents of the recycle bin or chosen files but I am completely baffled about anything else.

The only thing I can think of is that when Eraser cleans the MFT is that windows see’s more space for some reason, but I am still unsure about this.

I have done some tests for you on some hard drives with a ghosted image of XP SP2 and some random blocks of data dumped there in varying sizes. I Have checked the free space before and after on all drives and I have deleted and overwritten some of the blocks and then free space wiped. I couldn’t get any drive to gain more space than expected.

I was using NTFS in all cases are you FAT32 perhaps ?

Just one last thought on the ETE 2007 problem you had. ETE 2007 by default saves the restore points and in some cases makes new entries. I wonder if you still have that option enabled and that may be the cause of your problem. Of course that scenario wouldn’t leave and TMP files. Actually did you try looking for WIP files as I believe that is the extension that ETE 2007 uses.
 
Eraser *could* regain some disk space under certain circumstanes with an NTFS-formatted drive, at least according to my understanding...

When Windows runs low on hard disk space, it may decide to place a file in the disk area reserved for the Master File Table. As I understand it, even if that "resident" file in the MFT space gets deleted by normal means, the section of the reserved MFT space that was used by the file is still marked as unavailable for use. When Eraser does a free space wipe and cleans the MFT, the space that was occupied by the deleted resident file is also wiped, which the operating system then sees as "available" again (albiet still reserved for the Master File Table); for this reason the operating system reports a little bit more free space on the drive – which, again, is reserved free space, so obviously nothing to get very excited over.

In any case, it should be made clear that Eraser is not a "disk cleanup" program as one would use to clear junk internet or temporary files. Eraser's purpose is to permanently erase existing or insecurely deleted data.

Eraser can't reclaim MFT space used by a resident file that's still in the file system, i.e. not "deleted", but JkDefrag is able to move such a file out of the MFT zone if needed.
 
Hi Overwriter,

It's getting a bit technical for me now but thanks for doing the tests and getting back to me.

I've run it on NTFS and FAT32. No, I haven't tried looking for WIP files, I'll try that next time, thanks!

A few years ago before I'd even heard of utility software like CCleaner etc., I did a Google search for recovering disk space. Up came East Tec Eraser. I ran the trial program and recovered over half my used disk space, which was around 10GB at the time. I was shocked when I saw the result and somewhat worried that I had lost all my personal stuff. But I hadn't, it was all there! I was amazed!! So now when ever the HD starts getting full I just run the program. Not only are all files securely deleted (hopefully) but my HD is freed up. I don't understand it either... lol!

I appreciate your help!

And thanks for your reply Deep Loner,

I don't really understand the MFT space that you mention but none of my drives have been that low on space to start with. And I appreciate your comment that Eraser isn't a disk clean up program. But, if it will securely destroy files and give back some space then I see no problem with using it as such. It's like an added bonus.

I wanted to try Eraser as an alternative to ETE... seeing as it was free and ETE is not. I was pleased with the one scan that I have run with Eraser because of it's speed, ease of use and the slight gain in disk space. I will run it again at a later date and see what happens then.

Thank for your help, I appreciate it.
 
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