Disk Cleanup Tool - Discussion

[Ian]

Please leave any feedback about the Disk Cleanup Tool article in this thread.

 

[Veedaz]

Nice Article Ian and i would say one of the favourites in the Windows Operating System, I hope new comers to Windows take not of this very useful Article ... :top:

 

[davison2]

Recover the cleaned items

A very nice article indeed. Ian, I want to know that is there any inbuilt technique to get the cleaned items back to their original destination.

Please let me know

 

[davehc]

You can preprogram disk clean up, so that the items you want cleaned can be selcted before running the program.
Find "Disk cleanup" in the start. All Programs
Right click it and select properties.
You will see this : %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe
Add /sageset:99 (Not a space, after cleanmgr.exe)
Apply
Now, whenever you run the progam, you will find options for the items you wish to clean.

 

[catilley1092]

Great article, Ian, nothing's really changed since XP on the disc cleanup. While this is a good, basic cleanup, CCleaner cleans up far more, and cleanses it beyond recovery (overwriting it up to 35 times). With the basic disc cleanup, the items can be easily retrieved, unless you've overwritten them with a download.

 

[andsome]

Why not go to Start/computer/right click on the drive you wish to clean up/properties and save all the messing about remembering what to type?

 

[catilley1092]

Why not go to Start/computer/right click on the drive you wish to clean up/properties and save all the messing about remembering what to type?

With CCleaner, you don't have to mess around, remembering what to type. You leave your basic functions checked, occasionally you may have to insert a file, but it deletes far more than your basic cleanup could ever hope for. All temp files, thumbnails, cookies, IIS log files, many, many others. And with the capability of overwriting them as many as 35 times (the Guttman method), there's nothing left for someone to find. After all, you don't simply discard your bank and financial statements without at least shredding them, or cutting them at all angles into tiny bits, do you? It's the same principle, for the same reason. To keep thieves away.

 

[andsome]

I use C Cleaner last thing every evening. I haven't actually used disc clean up in ages.

 

[catilley1092]

Me neither, I don't recommend that anyone who is concerned about their security, to use the built in disc cleaner. As a plus, CCleaner cannot delete critical files that your system needs to run. I even tried to clean out my external hard drive with it, the program wouldn't allow it for safety reasons. The only tool that I've not used in Windows 7 is the registry cleaner. I use Windows Live Safety Scanner for this, they have one for Vista/Windows 7 & one for XP & below. It's a Microsoft product, and creates a restore point before doing anything. I've never had a problem with that program. It also has a disc cleaner.

 

[Kalario]

Great article, Ian, nothing's really changed since XP on the disc cleanup. While this is a good, basic cleanup, CCleaner cleans up far more, and cleanses it beyond recovery (overwriting it up to 35 times). With the basic disc cleanup, the items can be easily retrieved, unless you've overwritten them with a download.

Does this action (overwriting it up to 35 times) shorten the life of the drive?

 

[clifford_cooley]

Does this action (overwriting it up to 35 times) shorten the life of the drive?

Yes, it would shorten the life of the drive. Everything has a max write cycle.

The question is how often you would need to use this feature. Obviously, you wouldn't need to use this feature every time you deleted an item.

 

[Thrax]

For mechanical hard disks, the life reduction would be statistically insignificant.

 

[catilley1092]

I use it every night prior to turning off the computer, and although I can't say one way or the other that it shortens drive life, it hasn't hurt mine. The average life of a mechanical drive is said to be around five years. This laptop is that old, and despite the use of CCleaner, and File Shredder (XP & below), my drive is still going. File Shredder has a free space scrub function that you can adjust (up to 35 times) to your preference. That really does a great job, mabye they'll come out with a Windows 7 compatible one.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Does this action (overwriting it up to 35 times) shorten the life of the drive?

That is just super paranoia to be honest. It is never necessary to overwrite a drive that many times unless one is worried that the NSA or the FBI would get a hold of the drive and use an electron microscope to scan and analyze the platters.

 

[catilley1092]

It doesn't overwrite the entire drive, just the files you're deleting. The same principle as an office that shreds most documents prior to disposal. You make internet purchases, get confidential emails, you want these records gone. If by any chance spyware was placed on your computer, these kind of things can be found.

 

[Nibiru2012]

My point is that really all the overwrite that needs to be done is 3 times MAX. I wasn't talking about the entire drive. No one can recover data from online after using the DoD 5220.22-M method. (3 write method).

Why do you think it's called the DoD method? It was developed by the Dept of Defense! That is one of the options in CCleaner.


From Wikipedia:
Data sanitization DoD 5220.22-M is sometimes cited as a standard for sanitization to counter data remanence.

US Department of Defense in the clearing and sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M recommends the approach "Overwrite all addressable locations with a character, its complement, then a random character and verify"

 

[catilley1092]

You're right, you do have a choice of how many times you overwrite. There's one, three, seven (NASA's standard) and 35 (the Guttman method). That gives you four choices. It's my choice to delete beyond recovery. Then, once monthly, I use another program made by the same company. Recuva is the name of it. It's actually a file undeleter, but you can run it, see what files (if any) are recoverable, and there actually are some. You have the option to recover, or you can overwrite these files with the same options as CCleaner. It takes all night to run, but it gets the leftovers good.

 

[Veedaz]

A three (x3) times overwrite is enough for any home computing, apps like DBAN, Eraser etc have more and less but (x3) is good for erasing ... unless your running guns or your a drug lord