Delete Free Space

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Le Fumeur


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Ok, under Disk Utilities, I can select to Delete Free Space with 0s, 7 times, or 35 times. If my recycle bin is already empty, what exactly is being deleted? Also, does it affect the remaining amount of free space on my drive?
 
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mynameis


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When you delete a file it doesn't physically erase it from the hard drive, the data is still there. When you delete a file it just opens that space up to have another file written in that same space. It is possible to recover deleted files because of this. If you deleted something and you want to make sure it is gone, you can delete free space, it will write over that physical spot on the hard drive so that the file won't be able to be recovered, the more times you go over the better.

You'll notice there is also a secure empty trash option, that basically just writes the files over with 0s so they aren't able to be recovered. Same idea behind delete free space.

And no, it doesn't do anything to affect how much hard drive space you have available
 
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Le Fumeur


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mynameis said:
When you delete a file it doesn't physically erase it from the hard drive, the data is still there. When you delete a file it just opens that space up to have another file written in that same space. It is possible to recover deleted files because of this. If you deleted something and you want to make sure it is gone, you can delete free space, it will write over that physical spot on the hard drive so that the file won't be able to be recovered, the more times you go over the better.

You'll notice there is also a secure empty trash option, that basically just writes the files over with 0s so they aren't able to be recovered. Same idea behind delete free space.

And no, it doesn't do anything to affect how much hard drive space you have available
Click to expand...
Ok thanks! Now, forgive my noobness, but just to make sure: I am safe to "delete free space" without any negative effects on my machine, right?
 
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mynameis


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Le Fumeur said:
Ok thanks! Now, forgive my noobness, but just to make sure: I am safe to "delete free space" without any negative effects on my machine, right?
Click to expand...


Correct, everything will work exactly how it did before you started. For some reason when you delete free space it'll give you an error saying your hard drive is full when the process is about done, just ignore that.
 
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Le Fumeur


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mynameis said:
Correct, everything will work exactly how it did before you started. For some reason when you delete free space it'll give you an error saying your hard drive is full when the process is about done, just ignore that.
Click to expand...

Ok thank you very much!
 
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BlindingLights


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Your Mac's Specs
iMac 17" Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz 512 MB Ram 128 vRAM 60GB HD
when you delete free space, does it completely wipe your hard drive? or just completely erase any free space on your hard drive?
 
macAttack

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it writes a disk image the size of your free space on your hard drive and then securely deltes it so the free space is written over with 0's. It does not affect any files you have on your hard drive.
 
baggss

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Le Fumeur said:
Ok thank you very much!
Click to expand...

Ok, I have to ask, why do you want to completely wipe your free space? There is no space gain benefit to it and the only good thing is it makes data unretreivable.

Trying to hide something...;)
 
S

Sydrocentric

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baggss said:
Ok, I have to ask, why do you want to completely wipe your free space? There is no space gain benefit to it and the only good thing is it makes data unretreivable.

Trying to hide something...;)
Click to expand...
Kiddie porn!

I'm so just kidding.
 

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