Which one - to format HD or sweep them out ?

W

webexplorer

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I need your suggestion.

I need to prevent someone to undelete my personal deleted files in the trash.

What should I do? To format my hard disk - or - a software to sweep them out permanently without formatting the HD ?
 
If you only want to make sure they cannot recover stuff from your trash, you can simply go to

--> Finder

and choose

--> Secure Empty Trash

If you want to get rid of ALL of your data and make sure it cannot be recovered, only formatting your harddrive will NOT solve your issue! You would have to choose Options under Erase in Disk Utility and either select "Zero all data" or "8 Way Random Write Format" to delete the data for good.

patrice
http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/
http://www.silverknuckle.com
http://www.tattoo-source.com
 
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I use the Secure Empty Trash once a while, but I didn't know about it until I read it on the internet a few months later.

I heard that "Zero all data" or "8 Way Random Write Format" takes so many hours, and even it takes four days. Isn't that true?

O.K. I'll use these format for my 160 GB hard disk on my desktop G5. I probably won't enjoy it for long hours. I was hoping that there is a software that would only erase the hidden old deleted files in the trash can permanently.

I am curious what software that we could undeleted files in the trash can. I had a Norton to undelete them, and that was old news.
 
Yes, the random write format takes a long time. The 8-way random format can take up to a day, and anything beyond that will take an excruciating amount of time to complete.

Is your data THAT sensitive that you must go to those extremes to protect it? Simply using the "secure empty trash" should be enough security for most people, unless you're expecting "Mission Impossible"-style thieves to physically steal your hard drive, take it to a professional "clean" lab, and start dissecting the bits of data with advanced equipment that mere mortals do not possess.
 
Yep, I am one of the Mission Impossible groups. I am thinking of bring my degaussing device and go there...

Unfortunately, I have some unusual pictures of my girlfriend and me. They need to be purged, and never do it again. It was just only for fun, but realize that it wasn't good idea.
 
Heh... T.M.I., man, T.M.I... ;)

What you can do is boot from your Mac OS X Install CD/DVD (I'm assuming it's Tiger), launch Disk Utility from the "Installer" menu, highlight your hard drive, click the "Erase" tab, then click "Erase Free Space". That should clean up any remnants of those unmentionable files...
 
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