Trouble partitioning

[Humboldt]

A friend of mine ran a DOD free space cleaner, but now can't partition his drive as it says all the free space is now used.

Will "disk cleanup" help convert this back to free space?

Thanks

[The Dude]

I'm confused somewhat. I'm thinking a free space cleaner just erases data (old deleted files) in the unused portion of your formated drive/partition. If I'm correct you won't have any more of less free space on the drive. To create another partition you need to have unused (unpartitioned) space on the drive. If all the free space is used you will have to delete the partition(s) to divide it up into more partitions. Or use a program like partition magic to resize them so you won't loose any data. :confused:

[Humboldt]

Hi, thanks for the response.

Haven't actually seen the machine myself, this is a coworker's and I'm going by what he says.

It wasn't just a free space disk cleaner, but a "security" method of insuring the data is completely wiped out.

I do know that most of those wipers write over the free space or files that are to be deleted several times in a row. So I'm assuming maybe the last time it did this it left the files written to, with useless 0's and 1's, but still written over.

I'm confused somewhat. I'm thinking a free space cleaner just erases data (old deleted files) in the unused portion of your formated drive/partition. If I'm correct you won't have any more of less free space on the drive. To create another partition you need to have unused (unpartitioned) space on the drive. If all the free space is used you will have to delete the partition(s) to divide it up into more partitions. Or use a program like partition magic to resize them so you won't loose any data. :confused:

[The Dude]

I'm still confused? If this is a partitioned drive with windows on it, you can't create another partition from the free space in the already created partition. You can only create another partition from unpartitioned space on the drive. At least not from disk management as far as I know. The drive is probably already partitioned using 100% of the space on the drive, that's the default. Now if you are using partition magic or similar that is different. You would have to resize the active partition. Reduce it and then create a new partition in the free (unpartitioned) space. I have seen utilities that do both. I have used one to write 1's and 0,s to a drive over and over to erase everything on the drive. It's like doing a low level format. The drive is completely blank with no partitions on it after it is done. You can also write 1's and 0's to the unused space on a partition. This will erase any old data in that space so it can't be recovered with an undelete program. It doesn't create any more free space it just erases what's already there. The free space in this instance is already partitioned and formated so you can't use it to create another partition with disk management :) .

[Humboldt]

OK, thanks for the help, I'll pass this on to him. Not sure how to play middle-man:D

[The Dude]

OK, thanks for the help, I'll pass this on to him. Not sure how to play middle-man:D

It's never fun to play the middle man. You suppose he might join the forum after he gets it going? :)

[Humboldt]

It's never fun to play the middle man. You suppose he might join the forum after he gets it going? :)

He's here...Triniwasp.

He's just not the brightest fellow:)