The Best Free Hard Drive Cleaner

Everyone needs a free hard drive cleaner. In fact, it's a good idea to have several. Cleaners are essential laptop security tools that can be used to:

• Clean and optimize by removing unwanted files.
• Manage hard disk space.
• Remove unneeded files without possibility of recovery.
• Destroy data permanently.
• Maintain: running cleaner, faster and error free.
• Clear out temporary internet files.
• Remove Internet tracks, past computer activities and more.
• Freeware, temporary file cleaner for Windows, IE, Firefox and Opera.
• Search for system registry errors and unneeded files that can be safely removed.
• Remove unused and temporary files from your system.
• Return PCs to tip top shape.
• Protect privacy and recover valuable hard drive space.
• Remove files left by browsers, printers, software installs.
• Search folders for files to remove.
• Keeps PC's running smoother and faster.
• Find potentially useless files on drives.
• Free disk space and reduce the "clutter" on systems.
• Identify and eliminate unneeded files.
• Increase available disk space.
• Clean up and make space on your computer by scanning disks for garbage.
• Erase internet tracks, temp directories and more.
• Erase internet tracks, temp directories, manage index.dat.
• Improve system performance and surf without leaving tracks.
• Erase confidential files from your computer permanently.
• Easily clean up disk space that is now used by temporary files.
• Small disk utility designed to clear previously deleted files.
• Reclaim hundreds of MB of valuable space from your hard drives.
• Find and remove unnecessary garbage files from your local and network drives.
• Systematically clean, defrag, scan, check for viruses and bad uninstalls.
• Get rid of the duplicated files from your system.
• Delete your IE history, temp files, cookies and more.
• Completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive.
• Clean up browser cache, cookies, history, recent documents and more automatically.
• Clean history, junk files, recent documents lists and other sensitive files.
• Wipe/ remove / delete / erase a selected file(s) from most disks.
• Clean unused files that waste space or cause problems.
• Privacy protection and hard drive clean-up utility.
• Clean redundant, obsolete, and temporary files.

There are free hard drive cleaners or erasers appropriate to each of these tasks. Tools such as CCleaner are intended for day to day system maintenance, but others such as Darik's Boot and Nuke are usually only used when disposing of a laptop or desktop.

Three of the best free hard drive cleaners can be downloaded here:

1. CCleaner - System optimization and privacy tool.
2. Darik's Boot and Nuke - Data wipe. Caution! Use extreme care.
3. Eraser - Another data wipe option.

If data recovery protection is a concern, formatting is not an option. Data can still be recovered after a drive is formatted.

Depending on the sensitivity of the data, an important consideration in selecting a free hard drive cleaner is whether or not it is compliant with DoD disk erasure standards. Few if any of the free options are compliant. In order to be absolutely confident that your confidential data doesn't come back into circulation after disposing of a laptop, it's advisable to make an investment in a compliant drive cleaner.