Files in the Recycle Bin are not, since the Recycle Bin is actually just a special directory. To your original question, files deleted from system directories are considered part of free space, since they are no longer 'held' by a directory.

Depending on those areas are initialized, there might be some remnants of data that is not overwritten, but the exposure is minimal. You would choose the FAT format, since that is the simplest and has the least overhead comprising directories, cluster maps, etc. If that doesn't work for some reason, a fallback would be to format the entire drive, so that it is practically empty, and then wipe all the free space. It even does not allow wiping the boot drive as a safety feature. I don't have CCleaner, but according to the docs, the current version at least has an option to wipe an entire drive. Windows has its own simple, built in methods to erase a disk. I'm also not particularly a fan of anything related to CCleaner. If you're not looking for a secure erase, and just want to make sure everything on the drive is erased for your personal use later, use the commands format J: /Q and format I: /Q, this will do a quick format and be (obviously) much faster than running a zero pass on the drive.Īlternatively, you can do a quick format from a GUI by right-clicking the drive and selecting the Format option.ĭeleting files by hand will be messy a slow. Make sure you open the command prompt as administrator. This switchįormat J: /P:0 and format I: /P:0 should do the trick for you. Overwrites are made after zeroing every sector.

Will be overwritten 'count' times using a different It sounds like you want a 'secure erase' or a zero pass to be done, is that correct?įrom format /?: /P:count Zero every sector on the volume.

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