# Securely Wiping Only the -Free- Disk Space



## Alex Ethridge (Apr 10, 2000)

I have asked this question at least three times over several years past. The question was (words to the effect), "What is the best way to securely wipe only the free space of a hard disk.". I got some suggestions at the time but none mentioned what I found on PCMag.com today. Here's the 'meat' part of the article:

*Wipe Free Disk Space*:
Launch a command prompt and type *"cipher /w:X"* (sans quotes) where X is the letter of the drive or partition you want to wipe. Press _enter._

I hope this helps someone.

You can see the whole article here. There are a lot of useful tips there.

Top Ten Windows 7 Hidden Features


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Thanks for the link and info.

Also if you use *CCleaner* under Tools you got "*Drive Wiper*" that also does free space.
Also option for 1 to 35 passes.

http://www.piriform.com/docs/ccleaner/using-ccleaner/wiping-free-disk-space


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