"Erase Free Space"

Hey guys, very quick noobie question. If I run Erase Free Space will it leave all my current files alone?

Yes. That's the point.

But, as always, make sure you have a backup first.

bobtomay said:

But, as always, make sure you have a backup first.

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I can't stress this point enough. I see far to many times people not back up their files, and then go out on their own and hose there data and their computer.

This program does a light "forensic" wipe by over-writing with zero's in the "free space" or "Unallocated" space on a hard drive. This by far is the most secure way to "delete" data from a hard drive that is in active use.

It the data is unallocated and not over written, the data can be retrieved, intact, or partially depending on whether any of the file has been overwritten by another file.

This is referred to as data carving. Overwriting the free space makes it very difficult to retrieve data.

I totally agree.

It's a great way of overwriting and deleting all the rubbish that has accrued on your IHD. Confidential items that you have deleted which might be recoverable by unauthorised parties for example will be deleted and overwritten in a way that makes retrieval impossible. Good if that is what you want. Good if there was a dodgy app that you deleted but which might be slowing things up etc. But two things to remember:

It takes time. Lots of time if you choose (from the offered options) to overwrite x3 or x7 etc.

Second: let it take its course. On no account abort the process as I once did because you then find that your IHD is full and the only solution is to restore from Time Machine or equivalent. Just be patient. The more free space you have on your IHD, the longer it takes. During this you should not do anything on your Mac. In fact, before you start the Erase Free Space, shut down all open apps.

Don't be scared or put off. It works. It just takes time.

Good fortune.

Ian




Firstly, it is permanent. Secondly, it takes a lot of time. Understandably

IWT said:

It takes time. Lots of time

... it takes a lot of time.

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Yes, it does. I will get it going when I'm about to do something else away from the computer.

It takes lot of time because it is writing AND verify the write to the physical drive.

As a Certified Computer Forensics Examiner, I often have a tough time explaining the amount of time some things take to do, especially attorneys.