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I posted about this a few years ago but it’s something I’m still concerned about. I want to overwrite the free space on my Alienware and Surface computers. Webroot’s old Window Washer program used to have this functionality but the current SecureAnywhere doesn’t. While I shred sensitive files rather than deleting, there are a lot of individual items, fragments, photos, misc. stuff that gets deleted that I’d like to eliminate from the HD by overwriting. I don’t understand why WebRoot no longer does this. Does anyone have a solution?
Hi Ifdow

 

Many of us use Ccleaner which has an excellent drive wiper in its arsenal. You may find this thread of help which also refers to Webroot's System Optimizer.

https://community.webroot.com/t5/Webroot-SecureAnywhere-Complete/Should-I-use-CCleaner-or-Webroot-s-System-Optimizer/m-p/176888#M10034

 

Regards, Nemo
Hi lfdow,

 

Webroot still has this as part of their Secure Erase feature. Open WSA and click on Advanced Settings and then choose Secure Erase from the choices on the left. Move the slider to either Medium or Maximum and erased files will be overwritten. The Maximum setting also overwrites free-space.

 

After changing this setting then simply right-click on the files you want to delete and choose Permanently erase with Webroot.

 



 

Hope this info helps,

 

BD
Hi DB

 

Apologies but I think that what is stated in the GUI is some what misleading as the online help text (when I checked it) states:

 


  • Normal — Deletes the files without overwriting them.
  • Medium — Overwrites the data with three passes.
  • Maximum — Overwrites the data with seven passes.
so I am not sure what is meant by the "overwrites space around the deleted files" as stated in the Advanced Settings...but I suspect that it will not overwrite all free space on the target disk.

 

This has me somewhat confused to say the least.

 

Regards, Baldrick
I couldn't find it now but I recall reading something either from Webroot or the community a rather long explanation about why overwriting free space wasn't a good idea and therefore they eliminated this fluxionality. It's an old memory so I may be wrong. Window Washer did have this option, though. In my current searches, I didn't see any warnings about doing this and it's something that's important to me.

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