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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1618079"><p>Erase Free Space is supposed to overwrite all &quot;empty&quot; space on the drive so that erased files are not recoverable. And it should be un-greyed, so you CAN do that from the boot drive, apparently (at least in Yosemite). I don't know why Harry suggested it to the OP, as it only touches the &quot;empty&quot; space on the drive. Empty space shows as empty (d'oh) and therefore isn't going to touch any space that is showing as being used. What I suspect is happening (and it's just a guess) is that the OP is using Time Machine and the backup drive is not connected, or not mounted, so when TM is scheduled to make a backup (default is once per hour), it cannot find the drive so it makes a &quot;snapshot&quot; on the drive to hold until it can find the backup drive again. There are two solutions, if that is the problem: 1. Connect and leave connected the backup drive or 2) turn off Time Machine when the drive is not connected and only turn it on for the backup when connected. There are also third party products that let you adjust the time between backups to more than the 1 hour max TM permits. I use one to turn on TM twice a day, noon and midnight, for backups, and my backup drive is always attached and mounted.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1618079"] Erase Free Space is supposed to overwrite all "empty" space on the drive so that erased files are not recoverable. And it should be un-greyed, so you CAN do that from the boot drive, apparently (at least in Yosemite). I don't know why Harry suggested it to the OP, as it only touches the "empty" space on the drive. Empty space shows as empty (d'oh) and therefore isn't going to touch any space that is showing as being used. What I suspect is happening (and it's just a guess) is that the OP is using Time Machine and the backup drive is not connected, or not mounted, so when TM is scheduled to make a backup (default is once per hour), it cannot find the drive so it makes a "snapshot" on the drive to hold until it can find the backup drive again. There are two solutions, if that is the problem: 1. Connect and leave connected the backup drive or 2) turn off Time Machine when the drive is not connected and only turn it on for the backup when connected. There are also third party products that let you adjust the time between backups to more than the 1 hour max TM permits. I use one to turn on TM twice a day, noon and midnight, for backups, and my backup drive is always attached and mounted. [/QUOTE]

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