Shreding Files?

[Sparrowhawk]

Hello Mac Users:
Is there a way or a program that will completely shred deleted documents (either from the web or simply emails and documents that I want to destroy forever)? Most shedding programs seem dedicating to internet acitivity, and I'm looking for a shedder that will erase all unwanted/unneeded documents.
Slightly off the subject, I'd like to be a refurbished eMac for the basement: any recommendations on who the best vendors are?
Thanks! Sparrowhawk
eMac:1.25 GHz Power PC GR
Memory: 768 MB DDR SDRAM

 

[sgould]

If you are running Tiger (maybe earlier, but I can't check it out), drag items to Trash. Then in Finder/Finder menu pull down, choose "Secure Empty Trash".

 

[billbaloney]

There are a lot of ways to "shred", but many of them involve knowing what you're looking for. For instance, one of the original shredders is the Unix command "rm -P", which means "delete, but first overwrite three times". That's a major shred.

If, for instance, you wanted to remove all log files within a certain directory (including subdirectories), you could run the command

find . -name "*.log" -exec ls -l {} \; -exec rm -P {} \;

That says, "Find every file ending in .log, list it so I know what you're removing, then overwrite-and-remove."

If you want to remove lots of cache, log, and other less-than-necessary files, try using Onyx, which is a great automator of maintenance tasks. It doesn't do overwrite-and-delete, as far as I know, but instead does a simple delete (i.e., unlink) when it cleans files.