2.3.87 FSCTL_SET_ZERO_ON_DEALLOCATION Request

  • Article

This message requests that the server fill the clusters of the target file with zeros when they are deallocated.<84> This is used to set a file to secure delete mode, which ensures that data will be zeroed upon file truncation or deletion.

There are several side effects associated with this operation.

  • If the file is resident, it is converted to non-resident and the resident portion is zeroed.

  • When reallocating ranges of a compressed file, the clusters are both zeroed and then replaced with a cluster representing compressed zeros before being reallocated.

This message does not contain any additional data elements.