The Erase Deleted Data feature is a slow process on large drives
Please note that running the Erase Deleted Data feature on large drives can take a longer time. However, this disadvantage can be overcome by scheduling the erasing process at times when the computer is not used or only at the end of the day (or of the week).
Wiping the unused disk space will temporary modify the amount of disk free space
When wiping the unused disk space on a drive, Erase Deleted Data creates a series of temporary files (.WIP files) in a folder placed in the root of the disk drive and fills them until there is no free space left on drive. Then it removes them from disk, thus freeing up the disk space. Each temporary file has up to 2 GB in size (if your drive has 3 GB of free space, Erase Deleted Data will create two temporary files, one of 2GB and one of 1GB, it will fill them and then remove them from disk). This high-level method is the most secure method to wipe the disk free space, because there is no danger for existing files to get modified or deleted.
Sometimes Windows will warn you that you are running out of disk space on the drive where Erase Deleted Data is wiping the disk free space. You should ignore this error, because east-tec Eraser will free up the disk space after it finishes wiping.
Q&A
Question: My system crashed while Erase Deleted Data was wiping the disk free space and all of my available hard drive space disappeared. How do I get it back?
Answer: Run Erase Deleted Data again and it will automatically delete all the temporary files that remained on your drive(s) after wiping the free space.
Scrambling files and folders properties
After wiping the free space on a drive, recovery utilities may still report previously deleted files as being available for recovery. This is because wiping the free space on a drive does not destroy the names of the deleted files. However, they will NOT be able to recover any data from their contents.
To remove any file attribute that may reveal the identity of the erased files and folders, check the Scramble files and folders properties option when running the Erase Deleted Data feature.
NOTE: Using this method may slow down the wiping process, especially on large hard drives containing substantial amount of information (files and folders).