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How to wipe cluster tip inside files without deleting files?


badbiosvictim

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Are cluster tips inside personal files? Personal files are non system files such as .txt, .doc, .pdf, .jpg, .mp3, .avi, etc.

 

CCleaner Professional Plus offers option to wipe cluster tips while wiping a drive. I don't want to delete my personal files. If cluster tips are inside personal files, how to wipe the cluster tip without deleting the files? 

 

If cluster tips are not inside personal files, are they in free space? Would wiping free space and keeping personal files on the disk wipe the cluster tips?

 

Do all hex editors display cluster tip at the end of file (EOF)? If not, which hex editors do and which ones don't?

 

Would moving my personal files from a FAT32 removable media to another FAT32 removable media delete the cluster tips from inside personal files?

 

Would moving my personal files to a linux partition, remove the cluster tips from inside personal files?

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I read the Wipe Cluster Tips before posting this thread. It needs to be expanded to more fully cover this confusing topic.

 

How to wipe cluster tips on removable media? Ccleaner's option to wipe cluster tips appears to be only for C drive, not removable media.

 

(1) Options > Settings > Secure Deletion > Secure File Deletion > tick wipe cluster tips. This setting does not ask which drive. Doesn't secure file deletion mean deleting files?

 

Or

 

(2) Tools > Drive Wiper > tick wipe free space only > tick which drive. This has no option to wipe cluster tips.

 

Do I need to move my personal files from my removable media to a hard drive, wipe removable media and move back my personal files?

 

Do you mean moving personal files to a linux partition will not remove the cluster tips in the removable media that the files were initially in? Or that moving personal files to a linux partition moves the cluster tips to the linux partition? 

 

Do linux partitions have cluster tips? If not, that would be another good reason to switch to linux.

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There's a great deal of confusion here.

 

Krooze, cluster tips are part of the file's allocation, not free space. They are the part of the file's cluster allocation that is not used by the file's data.

 

BBV, Secure File Deletion and Wipe Free Space are entirely separate. SFD operates on any file that is within CC's remit, so if you have included files from removable media or non-system partitions then they will be securely deleted, cluster tips and all if the box is checked. Specifying a drive letter is meaningless in this context. It's Secure File Deletion.

 

Cluster Tips are meaningless in WFS, this is not file deletion. WFS writes complete 4096 blocks of data on top of the clusters. There are no cluster tips to overwrite.

 

Do you need to move your files between devices or switch to Linux? Do you think someone is going to break into your house and use a hex editor to scan your cluster tips? Personally my answer to both is no, but you might have a more pressing reason to be so worried.

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I know cluster tips (slack space) is not part of free space. Using CCleaner to wipe free space did not decrease cluster tips as detected by Karen's Disk Slack Checker.  Karen's Disk Slack Checker is at http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptslack.asp.


 


I have significant amount of cluster tips in all of my removable media and external hard drives. For example, Karen's Disk Slack Checker detected that my 8 GB Kanguru Flasblu flashdrive has 900.93 MB slack. Slack space is a very large percentage of the 8 GB flashdrive. Screenshot of beginning of Karen's analysis is at http://imgur.com/SDr6oza Screenshot of end of Karen's analysis is at http://imgur.com/tnr8jhs


 


I will repeat my questions:


 


(1) Secure File Deletion deletes the file and cluster tip. I don't want to delete my personal files. How to delete cluster tips WITHOUT deleting my personal files on removable media? Ccleaner does not offer an option to do this. 


 


(2) Do I need to move my personal files to another disk, perform a Secure File Deletion of flashdrive, move my personal files back to flashdrive and retest with Karen's Disk Slack Checker?


 


(3) Several months ago, Windows reformatted the flashdrive. FAT32's default cluster size for a 8 GB drive is 4 KB. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192322 However, Karen's Disk Slack Checker reported it as 16 KB. However, the minimum size of file on disk of all of my removable media is 32 KB. 


 


If I move my personal file to another disk, perform Secure File Deletion on the flashdrive, reformat the flashdrive and move my files back, new large cluster tips will be recreated because the FAT32 cluster size is always larger than the default cluster size on all of my removable media.


 


All the Windows XP and Windows 7 computers I have used in the past several years, do not give options of 'Allocation Unit Size.' The drop down box only has 'Default Allocation Size.' Screenshot of a Dell desktop XP #1 is at http://imgur.com/2GAov8Z  Screenshot of a different Dell desktop XP #2 is at http://imgur.com/12kKa99


 


The 'Allocation Unit Size' should have options ranging from "512 bytes to 64K." http://superuser.com/questions/31682/formatting-a-partition-what-should-the-allocation-unit-size-be


 

Gparted and Disk Utility in linux can format to FAT32 but they do not offer an option of Allocation Unit Size. Gparted GUI formats to default cluster size. http://gparted-forum.surf4.info/viewtopic.php?id=17030


http://askubuntu.com/questions/370660/is-it-possible-to-set-allocation-unit-size-with-gparted-when-formating-an-extern


 


Using Windows 'Default Allocation Size,' or a linux partitioner that does not offer choice of Allocation Unit Size, all my removable media have size of file on disk larger than FAT32's default cluster size listed at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192322 This will recreate large cluster tips.


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I think that there's a yawning gulf of misunderstanding here. Either you are not reading the replies, or you are reading them and ignoring what's said. I don't mind being ignored in the least, but some response why would be appreciated.

 

Of course WFS didn't 'decrease' cluster tips, whatever that means, it's a meaningless exercise. CC doesn't do anything to cluster tips of live files, so forget it.

 

Are you trying to gain space by 'deleting' cluster tips? They are part of the file's cluster allocation, you can't use those spare bits of clusters for any purpose. Copying off the device and back again won't make the slightest difference to cluster tips.

 

Now we come to a lot of new information in your last post. We now know (I think) that it's a flash drive, FAT32, with a 16k cluster size, and a cluster tip size of 11.6k on average. Yes, Copying the files out, reformatting to a 4k cluster size, and reloading the files would, as far as I can see, reduce the amount of spare space in the file allocations. There is no need to run any secure delete or WFS, just reformat.

 

If you're saying that you can't reformat to a 4k cluster size then I can't help. I have reformatted an 8gb FAT32 flash drive to 4k cluster size on XP, but I think I did it using Partition Magic. Google for it. Well, that is a little help, I think.

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Augeas, I am reading the replies. I am not ignoring them. I am trying to understand cluster tips. The last several days, I have searched for articles on cluster tips. There are not that many. 

 

The reason why I need to delete cluster tips is not to regain space. Malware is hiding in cluster tips.

 

Why did you say Secure File Deletion is not necessary after moving my files to another removable media and before reformatting? If Secure File Deletion and ticking box to wipe cluster tips is not performed, wouldn't the cluster tips remain after reformatting? Reformatting does not delete cluster tips.

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I don't think that anyone could read post five without reasonably concluding you were worried about space taken by cluster tips, and the problem of reducing the cluster size to 4k. Now we have the introduction of malware.

 

I said that no secure delete or WFS was necessary because at that point the focus was on reducing space used by cluster tips. Malware hadn't been mentioned.

 

Do you think you have malware or are you just concerned that you might?

 

Yes, copy the files out, delete them all, format if you want to, run a CC WFS with ONE pass only, copy the files back again. That should leave you clean, and finish this thread off.

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