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Eman Eslaf
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February 15th, 2008 20:00
Overwrite free space Vista Home Basic
G'Day,
Using a Dimension C521 with Vista Home Basic.
I have for some time been trying to overwrite the free space on the hard disk using numerous free applications for the purpose. I have tried everything from the single pass to the Guttman algorithm 35 passes. I have done this in both safe and regular mode with little success. Some file recover programs tend to indicate that the process was successful but when I use a program run from a USB stick, called Virtual Lab 5 over 35,000 assorted files are recoverable. The majority of these would originally have been temporary internet files which does not cause me concern. However some are also previously deleted, personal files which are still recoverable after ten full Guttman passes.
Assistance and direction in correctly overwriting free space would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Eman
Eman Eslaf
3 Posts
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Posted February 16th, 2008 16:00
Thank you for your quick response. The program Virtual Lab 5 that I use to see what "may" be recoverable also give the ability to view the individual files in Text or Hex or in the case of images you can see the actual image. I am not trying to recover any files but rather leave the hard disk in a state where I can be certain that files deleted in the usual manner via the recycle bin cannot be viewed in Hex or Text after the free space has been overwritten. I do not have anything on my computer that needs this level of security. I am simply experimenting what can be read on the free space after deletion and overwriting.
I had not thought of the MFT. Since this is the place where information about every file and directory on an NTFS volume is stored, how can one find and access it and can it be edited?
Thank you,
Eman
Well, that was my point, the MFT only has the name and location of the file, no actual file data, so you may see some text or hex data.
As an experiment try to recover a overwritten file with that software, see if it can, I doubt it.
This is the one I have used in the past, I do know it overwrites the MFT when erasing files, but It cannot when doing free space, because there are no actual files being erased.
Eman Eslaf
3 Posts
371
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Posted February 18th, 2008 19:00
I needed a day or two to further experiment as you suggested. I first identified a Word document I had deleted several months ago and was able to retrieve it intact. Images were the same although some were partially overwritten. This would suggest that they were not MFT located. I downloaded Eraser and did a single pass, which overwrote the majority of files completely. It would thus appear that the majority of free "Overwriters" out there, are not up to the task when used on disks with Vista Home Basic with the exception being Eraser.
Many thanks for your help chalk this one up as solved.
Eman.
mombodog
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12735 Posts
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Posted February 15th, 2008 23:00
It say's they are recoverable. have you actually recovered any? If it does recover any files are they readable?
When you overwrite free space, it does not have any effect on the Master File Table, this is where recovery software looks, but when it tries to recover the file it will usually fail to recover anything of use.