Is a deleted encrypted disk image still recoverable?

[Sonic88]

Greetings all,

It seems that ensuring a complete wipe of an SSD is very complicated. However, would another option be to create a disk image where you drag all your confidential files to, and then encrypt it with FileVault, unmount it, and then simply delete that disk image using trash as you would do a normal delete? In this case, even if someone were to recover that disk image, would it still be useless and unaccessible without the password?

Thanks for any tips or insight!

 

[harryb2448]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

FileVault is pretty dangerous, the humber of posts about folk forgetting the complicated password and unable to access their Mac. And what is the problem erasing and formatting an SSD - same as a platter drive and do it in Disk Utility Emptying after placing in Trash, suggest you use Secure Empty Trash.

 

[Sonic88]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

FileVault is pretty dangerous, the humber of posts about folk forgetting the complicated password and unable to access their Mac. And what is the problem erasing and formatting an SSD - same as a platter drive and do it in Disk Utility Emptying after placing in Trash, suggest you use Secure Empty Trash.

Thanks for your reply. According to what I've read, formatting a HD doesn't ensure that the data is unrecoverable, unless you do a secure erase from disk utility. But I've also read that secure erase can actually cause harm to SSDs. Despite the typical danger of losing your password with file vault, will a deleted encrypted disk image be still inaccessible even if it was somehow recovered by someone (someone who doesn't know your password)?