["Wipe MFT Free Space drive C" not completing]

Wipe MFT is an 'add-on' to WFS, so WMFT is not run as a stand-alone exercise, but as a preliminary to WFS. Have you, can you, determine the times for these two separate events?

 

WMFT can be a complex operation. It creates individual small files to fill every unused record in the MFT, and then deletes them. In my MFT there are about 75,000 unused records, so 75k files would need to be created.

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To add to this the MFT in W7 is allocated in non-contiguous 200k chunks. With a folder record in one, the MFT bitmap in another, and the unused records everywhere, there is a lot of disk thrashing.

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Thank you for your detailed reply, Augeus

 

I can determine the WFS elapsed time by running WFS without WMFT and get circa 10 minutes.  I can then run WMFT with WFS and get circa 4 hours.  Hence time for WMFT = 4 hours less 10 minutes.  - Whereas, on my old XP machine, I could literally see WMFT finish in a few minutes and move on to WFS.

 

How do you know how many unused records there are in your MFT ?

 

Do your comments about the Win 7 MFT imply that when you have a relatively new install, one might expect the WMFT to take longer than after a lot of use, because the unused records will be less ?  Also, does the 200k chunk Win 7 MFT architecture suggest a slower process than in XP ?

 

Do any other readers of this post think 4 hours for WMFT in Win 7 seems OK ?

["Wipe MFT Free Space drive C" not completing]

Another cause could be the antimalware solution on the drive, or (if vista/win7/win8) VSS/file-history building whilst you wipe

 I'm on Windows 7 x64 and use Malwarebytes.  I'm not familiar with VSS/file history building - how can I tell if I have this active ?  Any other ideas.  I let Wipe Free Space run to completion overnight and despite showing 15 hours to complete it actually took 4 hours including Wiping the disk free space, but this only takes 5 or ten minutes, so the vast bulk of the 4 hours is for the MFT.  It used to take less than the disk free space ! 

["Wipe MFT Free Space drive C" not completing]

if you cancel it, you will manually need to delete the creatrd file. You say that "after years of operation" Do you mean you have run driver wiper on this drive multiple times? If so you may be doing (and may have already done) major damage to the drive. One should only wipe a drive if planning on selling/retiring the drive. A hard drive can only be magnetized so many times and read/write-heads, spindles and other mechanical parts wear out. My suggestion is to cancel the wipe, remove the wipe file (an obvious file or folder and the root of the drive) and run a scandsk /f

 

Nergal

 

When I said "after years of operation" I only meant after years of using CCleaner on different PCs and laptops and occasionally using Wipe Free Space, and hence I have a very good feeing for how long each procedure usually takes CCleaner.  As for the multiple created .zzzz folders and files, these are self-deleting after I cancel the run. 

["Wipe MFT Free Space drive C" not completing]

Hello! 

 

On my 3.20 GHZ, 6.0GB RAM desktop PC, wiping MFT free space seems to be taking forever. When I run CCleaner without the MFT , free disk space gets overwritten fairly quickly. When I Ccleaner run it on my laptop, the MFT wiping only takes a couple minutes, notably less than the hour or so to wipe the free space. Meanwhile, on my desktop PC, I've been wiping MFT space for 27 hours and it's only at 10%. 

 

Why would wiping MFT on my computer take longer than wiping the free disk space without it? Doesn't the MFT just consist of some names and info, not actual content? So confusing. 

 

Any ideas on how to expedite this MFT wipe?

 

Thanks!

 

 

I have recently acquired this problem after years of satisfactory operation.    Any ideas ?

 

Looks like the same issue.

["Wipe MFT Free Space drive C" not completing]

Initially, this product ran very rapidly, and got to 98% completion in a couple of minutes. It said it would take 9 minutes to complete thereafter...which became 12 minutes...then 37 minutes...then 3 hours...etc. At this point, it's been "cleaning" for the last 30 hours, and it estimates another 16 hours will be needed. What's happening? Do I cancel the clean?

 

I have recently acquired this problem after years of satisfactory operation.    Any ideas ?

[RCCBakup]

I just came across a folder named "RCCBakup" under c:\Windows\system32\config

containing various .bac files which look like a registry backup - has anyone

any idea what the function of this folder is & what created it.

 

I post here in the 'off chance' that this folder was created by CCleaner which I use.

[SEARCH COMPANION Not Functioning]

Possibly the result of an unregistered DLL, if it is I don't have any ideal which one it would be. Sounds like a question DjLizard could answer in a nanosecond.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions, the problem is now solved folowing advice received from Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User who outlined a procedure to reinstall the Search Companion.

[SEARCH COMPANION Not Functioning]

I dont think CCleaner caused this. Did you use any other registry or cleaning apps? Also try rebooting and see if everything comes back.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

I have to admit to some pretty reckless and complacent behaviour.

 

I only downloaded CCleaner yesterday. As you know, CCleaner an "undo" facility but I chose not to use it. I also don't use System Restore after some problems in the past. I tend to rely on Ghost, but - you've guessed it, I deleted and accidently deleted my past images this afternoon - in fact, I was trying to use SEARCH to locate certain files when I discovered it didn't work (but it did work a couple of days ago). Mea culpa.

 

A reboot hasn't improved matters. The only other registry or cleaning apps I've used are ones I been using for months without problems (part of the reason for my complacency of course).

 

Any other ideas ? The system seems pretty stable apart from this issue.

 

Thanks again.

[SEARCH COMPANION Not Functioning]

I have XP Home Edition SP2.

 

I did some 'spring cleaning' using CCleaner earlier today and then went to use Search Companion this evening as follows : START then SEARCH, and the 'Search Companion' launches but from a "SEARCH" point of view is like an "empty shell" with many of its major buttons etc being 'empty' and No functionality present.

 

Anyone with any ideas ?

 

Any help gratefully received.

[Data destruction]

You are all correct. I choose to use CCleaner because of its ease and speed. I use it to keep the computer lean and fast.

 

For privacy use a free space shredder such as Zdelete, (not free but pretty good value ), to clean out and wipe all the free space. Tip -  start it when you are going out for the day, proper data destruction takes time!!!

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that the problem with relying on cleaning 'free space' for privacy was that deleted files which had been overwritten between 'free space' wipes, would not be affected by the next 'free space' wipe & hence were relatively easy to recover.

 

Rgds etc