July 13, 2020
While still on the Disk Clean Up screen, click on the More Options tab which should give you something like Figure 2. Figure 2 More Clean Up Option. Here you can click the Cleanup button to free up probably a gig or more of space. Clear System Restore Points. Disk Diet fully supports both macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and 10.14 (Mojave). In-app guidance provides support on how to enable all areas for cleaning in both versions. Select the drive you want to clean up, and then select OK. Under Files to delete, select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it. Seagate BarraCuda 1TB Internal Hard Drive HDD – 2.5 Inch SATA 6 Gb/s 5400 RPM 128MB Cache for PC Laptop – Frustration Free Packaging (ST1000LM048) by Seagate. More Buying Choices. $41.39 (19 used & new offers) FREE Shipping on eligible orders. 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,502.
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You want to donate or recycle your old computer gear, but there’s something you have to do first — wipe your hard drive. That means clearing out all your personal information.
You may think that’s not a lot of stuff, but your old devices probably hold a ton of information. Your medical records, browser history, login info for your bank account, past emails — all that information about you that accumulates on a device.
It’s not enough to simply delete old files. Why? The delete button doesn’t actually delete.
Your personal information will be retrievable on a computer’s hard drive unless you take steps to wipe the hard drive clean. If you don’t, the files are there for the taking. Anyone with recovery software and bad intentions could access them and put your privacy and the security of your personal information at risk.
How to completely wipe a hard drive
Follow these steps to ensure you’re truly wiping your hard drive clean. They’ll help keep you from passing on or losing your documents, photos, passwords, financial information, and personal data when you say goodbye to your old device.
Step 1: Back up your hard-drive data
Before you wipe your computer’s hard drive or do a factory reset, make sure to back up all of your information to your new computer, an external hard drive, or a web service.
Backing up your data regularly is a smart way to keep your data safe. Hard drives can crash, get lost, stolen, or encrypted by ransomware software. The best defense is to make sure all the data is backed up safely and frequently.
You can back up your data on thumb drives or USB flash drives. But keep in mind these are small storage devices and may not accommodate all the data from your PC. External hard drives can offer more storage. You can also transfer your data to another laptop or PC.
“Cloud backs” are another option. They’re safe and one of the most convenient ways to store data. Here’s how it works.
First, you create an account and complete the initial setup. Next, you enable the storage of your data to the cloud — a network of remote servers. There’s no physical location for the backed-up data. So the risk of it getting stolen or destroyed by things like floods or fires is mitigated. Plus, the files are encrypted. That makes it difficult for cybercriminals to access or steal your information.
The importance of data backup
It’s a good idea to make backing up data a part of your cyber hygiene. If you happen to lose your data due to a hardware defect or ransomware attack, having a backup could be the respite you’re looking for.
Step 2: Don’t just delete files from your computer
You might think moving your documents to the trash or recycle bin and emptying it will do the trick. Maybe not. This action appears to delete the files, but often leaves them where they were, hidden from view. Most data recovery programs can actually recover these hidden files.
Here’s why. When you empty files from the trash or recycle bin, the file name or the reference to the deleted file is erased. The computer can no longer see the file.
This means the space the file took up on the laptop or PC is no longer reserved for that file. But the file is still in the hard drive. It will stay in the hard drive until its location is given up for a new file to be stored in that exact location.
Data recovery software is capable of rebuilding the file header. This makes it possible for the computer to see the file again.
Here’s the risk. When your files are not deleted completely from the hard drive, cybercriminals can run data recovery software to access your deleted files.
Law enforcement agencies use data recovery software to access deleted files from confiscated computers. Cybercriminals can use the same tools and techniques to commit identity theft.
Step 3: Use a program to wipe your drive
Special software programs can permanently erase your hard drive. There’s little chance you can get any data back. Similarly, no one else will be able to use data recovery software to recover your files.
Most programs run a low-level format that overwrites all the deleted files with zeros and other incomprehensible data. This makes it impossible for data recovery software to recover the files.
DBAN is a free data destruction program* that completely erases files on a hard drive. This includes all personal files, operating systems, and installed programs.
It’s smart to use a program to wipe your device. Most products offer proof of erasure. Some even provide information about what was done to the drive and its data. This helps when wiping a company laptop or PC.
Step 4: Physically wipe your hard drive
If you want to double-ensure your hard drive is wiped, you can take additional measures. For instance, you can physically wipe the drive. Just remove your hard drive and take a rare earth magnet to it. Another option? Physically dismantle it with a screwdriver.
A rare earth magnet, like the neodymium magnet, can be used to deform the metal plates in the hard disk. This makes it unusable. One warning: The magnets are powerful and can cause physical harm if used incorrectly.
A safer method might be using a screwdriver to dismantle the pieces of the hard drive to make it useless.
Step 5: Do a fresh installation of the operating system
There’s another way to completely rewrite over the whole hard drive. That’s by completing a clean installation of the original operating system that came with the computer. This can be especially important if you’re giving the device to someone like a friend or family member.
What are the risks of not wiping my hard drive?
As the line between the real world and digital world blurs, it’s smart to understand how cybercriminals work. A security product like Norton Security Premium helps protect your personal PC files, financial information and your family’s devices. But when you discard your device without properly wiping the hard drive, you run the risk of losing your data.
Cybercriminals value your personal data — such as your email address, passwords, Social Security number, driver’s license details, and credit card information. They could sell the information on the dark web.
Cybercriminals can buy the information and launch cyberattacks to commit other kinds of crimes like identity theft and extortion. They could open bank accounts in your name, purchase items with your credit card information, or take out loans and default on them, leaving you with the consequences.
Thieves also look for private and confidential information. This may include non-disclosure agreements, personal photographs, private chat conversations, and other details you may not want to expose. If a hard drive wasn’t wiped clean, cybercriminals could retrieve this information to blackmail the owner of the content.
Types of data deletion
No matter what kind of data you had on your computer before you decided to donate or recycle it, it pays to play it safe.
Remember, deleting your files from the recycle bin or trash doesn’t mean the file is gone from your device. It only means its location is available. Data recovery software can easily find those files in your hard drive.
Here are a few ways to wipe your hard drive like the pros and avoid the risk of someone accessing your old data.
1. DBAN
Short for Darik’s Boot and Nuke, DBAN* uses a random number generator that wipes and overwrites everything on the drive several times. Every file that has been deleted now has the new number assigned to it. This makes it impossible for data recovery tools to access it. This tool is useful if you plan to sell, donate, or recycle your computer or laptop.
2. Destroy the hard drive
A sure way to completely destroy the hard drive is to make it physically impossible to access the disks. This can be done by dismantling the pieces of the hard disk with a screwdriver and using a hammer to scratch and mangle the disk. The goal is to make sure the disk will not work when it is loaded into another hard drive. A powerful rare earth magnet can also be used to destroy the platter in the hard drive.
How Norton Utilities can help wipe your hard drive
Your PC is likely packed with personal files. It’s wise to keep all that information secure and private. Norton Utilities is a handy tool that keeps your PC running like new. It fixes common issues that slow down or crash your PC. It also frees up space by finding duplicate files and unused applications.
It’s commonplace to store personal files on your PC. Now it’s easy to keep your digital life private. Safely dispose of personal documents, so no one can access them. Think of it as a digital shredder. Norton Utilities helps keep what you do on your computer private. It can permanently erase all record of your computer and web-based activities to help protect your privacy.
It also safely disposes of personal documents permanently and renders them inaccessible. Most of all, it maintains your digital privacy by erasing your recently opened files and website browsing history.
There’s a lot you can do to help protect your personal information if you take the right steps before disposing of your old computer.
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I'm sure you've run into situations where a user's hard drive is quickly running out of free drive space. This is especially true on older computers where perhaps you've done an in-place operating system upgrade. Eventually, free disk space starts running low which can lead to a number of problems. The challenge is to buy yourself a little wiggle room until a more permanent solution can be implemented. I want to demonstrate a variety of tools and techniques to put a hard drive on a crash diet. I'm going to focus on Windows 7, but many of these suggestions will work for older operating systems and servers. We'll look at a combination of graphical and command line solutions.
WARNING: A number of suggestions involve deleting files so I can't stress enough that you test these steps in a non-production environment so that you completely understand the implications. While I've personally used these techniques, this is definitely use at your own risk.
I've created a number of scripts which are mentioned throughout the article. You can download them from here.
1. Disk Clean Up Wizard
Without a doubt the first step in putting your disk on a diet is to run the Disk Clean Up Wizard. Right-Click the hard disk in Windows Explorer and select Properties. Then click on the Disk Cleanup button. You can also run Cleanmgr from a command prompt. Either way should get you to the screen in Figure 1.
Figure 1 The Disk Cleanup Wizard
Depending on your flavor of Windows 7 you might have a button labeled System Files which will bring up the More Options tab. Hopefully, this will free up enough drive space and provide a little breathing room. But if not, there are additional steps you can take.
2. Turn Off Shadow Copies
It is possible the computer is configured to maintain previous versions, also known as shadow copies. Windows maintains a copy of previously edited files in a special cache so that you can recover previous versions. Assuming space is more critical than a backup copy, you can clear this cache.
While still on the Disk Clean Up screen, click on the More Options tab which should give you something like Figure 2.
Figure 2 More Clean Up Option
Here you can click the Cleanup button to free up probably a gig or more of space.
3. Clear System Restore Points
System Restore points are another recovery feature that you may have to live without when space is at a premium. You can delete them at the same time you delete the previous versions. While there are no command line tools for deleting restore points, you can disable them using Windows PowerShell in an elevated session.
PS C:> Disable-ComputerRestore 'C:'
When you need to re-enable it run:
PS C:> Enable-ComputerRestore 'C:'
4. Clear Software Downloads
Windows Update downloads a lot of files, much of which can be deleted with minimal consequence. To safely delete these files, I recommend stopping the Windows Update Service either from the Services management console, or the command line.
Byword 2 8 – minimalist typing interface.
PS C:> Stop-Service wuauserv
Once stopped, delete the contents C:WindowsSoftwareDistributionDownload either through Windows Explorer or the command line.
PS C:> dir $env:windirSoftwareDistributionDownload -Recurse | Remove-Item 'Recurse
If you are really crunched you can delete the entire SoftwareDistribution folder. When you restart the Windows Update service it will be recreated and necessary files will be re-downloaded. But don't forget to restart the service.
PS C:> Start-Service wuauserv
5. Delete Unused Profiles
Old local user profiles can easily eat up space. Under Control PanelSystem and SecuritySystem click on the Advanced System Settings, On the Advanced tab you'll see a section for User Profiles. Click the Settings button. Now you can select any non-system profile that isn't in use and delete it.
Before Windows 7 IT Pros could use the handy DELPROF.EXE command line tool to delete user profiles from the command line. But this tool does not run under Windows 7. Instead we have to rely on Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Fortunately, this is very easy to use in Windows PowerShell.
I wrote a few functions you can use to identify profiles and then delete them.
PS C:> Get-UserProfile | where {$_.LastUse -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-90)} | remove-userprofile
This will use my functions to find all profiles that haven't' been used in the last 90 days and remove them.
6. Move the Swap File
A frequent step I take to alleviate disk bloating is to move the swap file to another drive. Sometimes you can move it to another partition. I usually plug in an external drive and move the swap file.
Under Control PanelSystem and SecuritySystem click on the Advanced System Settings, On the Advanced tab click on Settings in the Performance section. Select the Advanced tab and click on Change under Virtual Memory. You should see something like Figure 3.
Figure 3 Change Swap File
Select a new drive and configure the swap file. I typically use the System Managed size. Then on the old drive, I'm assuming C: set it to No Paging File. You might get a warning message but as long as you've set a new swap file it should be ok. You'll need to reboot for this change to take effect.
7. Delete the MSO Cache
If you have Microsoft Office installed, you most likely have a hidden folder on your C: drive called MSOCache. This is used to facilitate repairs and reinstallations of Microsoft Office features but it can eat up a lot of disk space. When you are on a crash diet you might have to live without it. Deleting the files requires elevated privileges. It won't affect running any Office applications, but attempts to install new features will fail.
To restore the cache later, you'll need to do a repair installation of Microsoft Office from the installation CD or DVD. I can't guarantee this tip will work for all versions of Microsoft Office but I was able to remove the cache for Microsoft Office 2010.
8. Turn off Hibernation
This tip should primarily affect laptops, but desktop computers might also have hibernation enabled. When the computer hibernates, memory contents are written to disk. Depending on the amount of RAM this could be a hefty file.
The easiest way to trim this file away is from the command prompt using the Powercfg.exe utility.
C:>powercfg -h off
When you want to re-enable it, run the command specifying 'On'.
9. Compress Selected Files
During the Disk Clean Up Wizard you are offered an option to compress old files. I never use this because I'll end up compressing old files that are already compressed. Instead I'd rather be a bit more selective and only compress files that are compressible and worth my time. Using WMI it is possible to compress files so I wrote a PowerShell script to do just that. This script, Compress-FileExtension.ps1 is a Windows Form script as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Compress-FileExtension.ps1
When you launch the script, enter a path and a list of file extensions (no periods or wildcards). You can also add criteria such as minimal file size and a last modified date. Use the List only option to see what files would be compressed. You'll still get a warning, but no files will be modified. Then when you are ready, uncheck List only and let it rip. Expect this to take some time to complete and you will most likely see errors in the PowerShell console for system folders you can't access. This is normal. The form may also appear to stop responding but be patient. Kick this off before lunch. Compressed files still occupy space, but it might be enough to make the operating system or an application think it has a bit more disk space to work with.
10. Backup and Clear Event Logs
The last diet supplement that might eke out a bit more space is to backup and clear event logs. Windows 7 not only has the classic event logs like System and Application, but many new ones that are part of Windows Eventing as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 Event Logs
Now, you can select each event log in the GUI, back it up (if you want or need to) and then clear it. If you are cherry picking, fine; but otherwise, PowerShell is our friend.
I find it just as easy to use the Get-WinEvent cmdlet to report on all event logs.
This expression gets all event logs with a file size greater than 1MB and writes some information to the pipeline. The important information here is the log name which we'll use next.
The event log cmdlets are limited so I prefer to handle everything on my own using the System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogSession class. Don't worry. I'll demonstrate the basic steps. First I'll create a session object.
$es=new-object System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventlogSession
We can use this object to gather event log information from both classic and new logs.
Disk Diet Clean Your Drive 5 4 2010
Specify the log name for the first parameter value. Use 'Logname' for the second. Assuming you want to back up the event log before clearing it, here's how:
Disk Diet Clean Your Drive 5 4 20
PS C:> $es.ClearLog('Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy/Operational','e:gpoops.evtx')
If you don't want to back it up first simply omit the second parameter. All you need to do is go through the list of event logs and clear them. Again, you might not regain a lot of disk space, but when you are on a diet every little bit helps.
Disk Diet Clean Your Drive 5 4 2017
Collectively, these steps will hopefully buy you enough time to properly address the situation with a more permanent solution. I know there are third party tools available for managing disk space and cleaning up hard drives, and they can be quite helpful. But sometimes you need to start the diet immediately and I hope this menu of tips and techniques satisfies your cravings.