How can this be possible? I did an advanced overwrite (3 passes).

Hi everyone,

I used Ccleaner V5.08.5308 drive wiper function to wipe my USB thumbdrive/flashdrive. Based on numerous read up, a lot of people commented that 35 passes is an overkill. Also, using one pass is more than enough. However, some other people said 3 passes is safer, and some other people said 7 passes is better.

This is my problem:

I selected the options: wipe entire drive and three passes. However, Recuva was able to recover 7 pdf documents in excellent condition, and I was able to read all the words in the pdf documents, despite I choosing 3 passes.

I thought that tools like CCleaner drive wipe will overwrite the entire drive three times, making all files unreadable. Am I missing something regarding this matter?

Ccleaner has two options for "Wipe":

1) Free Space Only
2) Entire Drive (All data will be erased)

I chose entire drive

Also, Ccleaner has four options for "Security":
1) Simple Overwrite (1 pass)
2) Advanced Overwrite (3 passes)
3) Complex Overwrite (7 passes)
4) Very Complex Overwrite (35 passes)

 

I can only think of two possibilities here - either you didn't type ERASE in caps or you have erased the wrong drive. How long did the process take roughly?

 

I did exactly as you did using CCleaner and a 1 GB flash drive. Recuva couldn't find a single file even when selecting Deep Scan.
As Earthling suggested, did you wipe the correct drive?

 

There are only one USB Flashdrive and I selected the correct one. Also, I typed ERASE in caps. The whole process took about ~ 5 hours. I left the computer alone to make sure I didn't interfere with the process.

To give you more details, I was wiping a 4GB USB Drive. Before I used CCleaner wipe function, this 4GB USB Drive was used to store documents first. After that, I used it to store Hiren's Bootcd.

Before I used Ccleaner Wipe Drive function to wipe, I used Recuva to do a deep scan to see what files there are. It found a few thousand files. After that, I used Ccleaner to do a three passes wipe.

I did this because I want to know how effective Recuva/Ccleaner is, that's why I note down how many files Recuva can find before and after using Ccleaner wipe drive function.

After doing a three passes wipe, Recuva was still able to recover 7 pdf files in excellent condition. That is what stump me.

Any possible reason why this is happening? Because I'm now wondering if I should do 7 passes instead of 3 passes due to what I experienced.

 

Something is amiss.
1. It took me just 20 minutes to wipe a 1 GB flash drive. It should take no more than 1½ hours to wipe a 4 GB flash drive - not 5 hours.
2. If you recovered only 7 PDF files from the few thousand files on the drive, maybe those files are write-protected. Check their Properties.

 

My CPU is pretty old. Even for a 1GB flash drive, it will take me about an hour to wipe the drive(But I can't remember the setting). Since you mention that, what affects the wiping speed of the USB drive? I guess read-write speed of the USB Flash drive plays a part, and whether it is a USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 as well . If it is possible, can I know the specs for your PC, because that was really fast.

Back to the main topic, I experimented with Recuva using the same 4GB USB Flashdrive again. If I were to use normal scan, it won't be able to detect the 7 files, but using a deep scan allows Recuva to recover the 7 files.

All the files are not write protected. I have checked their properties.

I will use Ccleaner to do a one pass again on the entire USB drive. I will let everyone know if there is any change.

Thank you for the insight so far, guys.

 

I can't find the edit quote function. Just to update, It took 11 minutes to do a one pass on the entire drive on my 4GB USB Flash drive. I'm starting to wondering if the brand of USB Flashdrive plays a part?

Surprisingly, after doing one pass on the entire drive of my 4GB USB Flashdrive, the 7 files is still in excellent condition.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I thought one pass means they will write a stream of data once to overwrite the old data, isn't it? Since I chose the entire drive, It means it will write steams of data on the entire 4GB USB drive?

 

To put things in perspective...
My PC:
CPU - 1.8 GHz celeron.
RAM - 3 GB DDR3 @ 667 MHz.
HDD - 80 GB IDE (11 years old).
USB 2.0.
Also, I did this with Windows XP!

I suspect the flash drive. I did the test on an 8 year old flash drive.

 

Thanks Eldon, I'm using window xp as well. 2+GB RAM. Anyway, I did another experiment.

I used three passes again from CCleaner wiping tools on the same USB Flashdrive. I used Recuva next, and surprisingly, the 7 same files still can be recovered.

Determined to find out whether it's my USB drive problem, I downloaded HDShredder and used the standard 3 passes. After doing that, I used Recuva, and the 7 files can't be seen anymore. Before that I downloaded three to four other popular disk wiper but it won't run on my pc or it's really limited in usage.

To conclude, I suppose the algorithm in Ccleaner missed out something?

The other thing is that the link for file shredder in Majorgeek is outdated. It showed HDShredder as version 4 with file size 20+MB, but when I downloaded it, It was only version 3.8 and the file size is only 7+MB. In the end, I downloaded it from the official website.

 

Try Eraser. I use that instead of deleting files. I right click select erase and I have my options set to a 3 pass erasure.
http://www.oldapps.com/eraser.php?system=Windows_XP

 

The first alternative drive wiper I downloaded was Eraser. However, there was an error along the line of Eraser is not a valid Win32 application. I googled a bit and I was not the only one who had this warning. I think the problem was somewhere along the line of xp service pack 3, and due to Microsoft stopping support for window xp. I can't really remember the reason.

 

Using multiple pass drive wipers on a thumb drive, as well as being rather time consuming and seemingly not entirely trustworthy, will affect its life expectancy. If I had such a drive that simply must not be accessed by anyone else I think I'd just put a hammer through it. Otherwise what's wrong with a simple delete?

 

Agreed. Or a simple format. :confused

 

I'm using eraser on two Windows XP computers. In fact, I'm using it on two computers running Windows 2000.

What version of Eraser did you try?
I'll check to see what versions I have on those four computers.

Actually I never erase my USB sticks. I move the files off then erase on the computer.

 

I downloaded the latest version: 6.2 something.

I was reading up on how a single pass is enough to make data unrecoverable or unreadable, and this is a statement which has been repeated many times over the years. So, when I did a three pass and the files are still in excellent condition, I was surprised. It's more of a curiosity thing in me, rather than other reasons. When you heard something repeated so many times over the years, and when something happened to you that is not considered the "norm", naturally, you will be curious.

Anyway, I guess I have to make a thread in Piriform forum to get my answer(s). *I guess not because it shows
"This Account Has Been Suspended" when I tried to get into its forum."

Thank you everyone.

 

The 6.2 version is not certified for use on XP.

Here are the 3 versions for XP
http://www.oldapps.com/eraser.php?system=Windows_XP
5.7, 6.0.9 and 6.0.10

I'm using 5.6 on XP and 5.8.8 on Win 7.
I found a safe download for 5.6
http://www.nonags.com/freeware-eraser_2827.html
the non-members download takes you to a sourcforge site and 5.6 downloads.

There is also a portable version
http://portableapps.com/apps/security/eraser-portable

I carry it on a USB stick if I need to clean computers of senior citizens I help and don't want to add more junk to the computer.