| Data Destroyer Disk Wipe |
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| Section 2: Wiping a disk |
Wiping (a.k.a. purging) a disk consists of purging the free space plus purging all files in all folders, except optionally for top-level files and optionally files in selected top-level folders.
Before wiping a disk it is recommended to uninstall all application programs that will be removed. This has two advantages: (i) It removes the program menus normally accessible via Start | Programs. (ii) It deletes not only the program files but also the files needed by the programs (unless these are system files), thus returning this disk space to the free space; consequently Data Destroyer Disk Wipe does not have to purge a lot of small files unnecessarily (the data in these files will be purged when the free space is purged) and the disk wipe takes less time.
If the disk to be purged has a folder called 'System Volume Information' (it may be hidden) then it is recommended to turn off 'System Restore' for that disk (do this via My Computer | Properties | System Restore). This will cause all files in that folder to be deleted. (For information about this folder see here.)
After you have selected the type of purge you wish to use you then select the drive you want to purge (or vice-versa). The images following illustrate the process of wiping a disk.
Clicking on the Purge drive button brings up the drive selection window (unless there is only one disk drive connected):
After selection of the drive:
The test consists of writing about ten dummy files (of varying size, from 50 KB to 128 KB) to be written to a selected drive. These files are then purged (using the selected purge type) to test the purge speed for that drive so as to get an estimate of purge time required for the disk wipe.
These estimates are for purging the entire disk. If you (later) exclude some files or folders from the purge then the time will, of course, be less.
A precise estimate of the time required for a disk wipe is not possible because the purge speed is much larger when purging a single large file than it is when purging many small files with the same total size. Thus Data Destroyer Disk Wipe calculates an adjustment factor (derived from the amount of free space on the disk and the average size of the files it finds on the disk) which it applies to the measured disk purge speed. The resulting estimate is necessarily imprecise, and the actual time can be from a half to twice the estimate, but at least it gives you some estimate, which is better than none.
This means: purge all files in all top-level folders on Drive D (and in all their subfolders) except for the files in the folder Program files.
If a folder is shown as "Permission denied" then it should be excluded from the purge (this is the default setting).
After clicking on the Accept button you are asked:
Answer Yes only if you wish to leave the program running unattended (say, overnight) during a long purge operation.
After writing the dummy file the program proceeds to purge it (and thus the free space).
| Next: Purging the swap file | |
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