Unused disk space

J

JohnGalt

New Member
Hello. I apologize if this has been covered before but I'm having trouble searching this forum. I was wondering if there is a way to run unused disk space tasks on a smaller size basis. In other words, rather than do the entire D drive at once (which takes about 3 days), is there a way to run the task during off-hours or something? Thanks in advance for all help!
 
Hi John.
I'm having trouble searching this forum.
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Yeah, the search is a bit strange. :)

I was wondering if there is a way to run unused disk space tasks on a smaller size basis. In other words, rather than do the entire D drive at once (which takes about 3 days), is there a way to run the task during off-hours or something?
Click to expand...

You cannot part wipe free space and then return to wipe another day as there is nothing to stop windows dropping new data in the previously wiped free space. There would be no way of being able to tell what area had and hadn’t been wiped before.

If your drive is taking 3 days I suggest you use the single pseudorandom pass. It is very secure and will stop all software recovery programs and probably a forensic attack. I have never heard of anyone recovering anything from a single pass on a modern hard drive. :wink:
 
Thanks for the reply. What you say, of course, makes sense. So, I wonder if a work around might be to run it more frequently but with fewer passes. Over time, does this accomplish the same thing or is this less secure?

Cheers,
 
So, I wonder if a work around might be to run it more frequently but with fewer passes.
Click to expand...

Whenever you overwrite your free-space you have to do it all in one go otherwise you may miss an area.

Yes I would certainly use less passes, the single pseudorandom pass I mentioned is both fast and secure. Unless you expect a very well financed and determined attacker trying to recover your data, but even then I would be surprised if they got anything after that pass.

Your best workaround is to fill some of your free space with some big files such as Truecrypt containers. This will dramatically reduce the free space wipe time and whenever you need any more space on your drive delete one of your containers.
 
You’re welcome, and remember to keep checking back here for the release of Eraser V6 !
 
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