Clean Hard Drive - Comments Page 1

Dear Bob: I'm interested in downloading the JDiskReport program you feature in this edition of Ask Bob. Yet I can't seem to find any downloading button in the site.Am I overlooking something?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, click the Download link below "Screenshots", then click the link corresponding to your operating system.

Lots of people know that it is COMPLETELY WRONG to say anything like "To ensure that ... files will not be recoverable then you should reformat your hard drive ..." (re-installing the OS is irrelevant). With this terrible statement you will lead many people to reformat their hard drive (which only re-initializes the FAT or its equivalent and OVERWRITES NO DATA TRACKS), leaving all their "sensitive files" easily recoverable by many utilities.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Quite right. I must have been thinking of the "low level format" utilities that used to ship with hard drives. I've updated the article to make it clear that formatting (and perhaps even overwriting) is not a good way to ensure that a hard drive is truly "clean."

It's a shame you didn't mention "DBAN" (Darik's Boot and Nuke). It fits on a self-booting 3.5 floppy, and it's FREE. It's also good.

I have lost the sound on my laptop after cleaning my hard drive with "Wipedrive" how can i get it back.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sound like a job for System Restore.

When I use the Disk Cleaner, it takes a long time to "Compress Old Files". {I have very large files over a four- or five-year period.} What goes on here? Can a file that is compressed and decompressed get corrupted. I clean up every day, and defragment at least once a week. Will all that action create problems?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Don't worry, you won't damage your files by doing regular cleanup and defrags.

I cant see half of my mp3 files on my ext hard drive. its asking me to run chkdsk, I run it then runs finds orphan files an starts to repair but i run out of disc space and it fails, how can i resolve this problem an get back my lost mp3s. help

EDITOR'S NOTE: I would move the good files OFF the disk ASAP, then try the CHKDSK again.

Another drive killer with 3 passes of zeroes and then ones is boot N nuke, referred above as DBAN. 3 passes free, more if you purchase it. Meets government specs for cleaning a drive with little(very expensive) or no chance of data recovery (many passes could take days on a large drive.

Somewhere there must be a utility that checks that all or selected files on a hard drive are readable from start to finish. Something a little bit fancier, more sophisticated, flexible & informative than CHKDSK or SCANDISK.

EDITOR'S NOTE: That sounds like the extended scan option for CHKDSK. Why is that not sufficient?

Thanks for the advice, Bob. CCleaner is an excellent HDD cleaner, and it is not true that you have to install Yahoo along with it. I have used CCleaner for years and have always declined the offer to install Yahoo. EasyCleaner is also a good free cleaner. so is Wise Disk Cleaner. Best wishes.

Hey bob I been using the Aladin Systems to clean my hard drive, it gets rid of all those cookies and pop ups but also I tried the feature that Mcafee offers to clean my hard drive, but it seems like I still have 458 MB left I dont know why, I'm kind of frustated because, i tried everything to clean my computer but nothing seems to work, Am I doing something wrong?

EDITOR'S NOTE: What do you mean by "still have 458 MB left"?