Q: Are there andythird party Mac applictions to hd erase free space?
Now that Apple in their infinite wisdom decided to eliminate the ability to erase free space from El Capitan, are there any 3rd part applications that will do the job? CCleaner a good job but I don't see it in the app store any longer. I know you can use the terminal to clean space but I'm not comfortable with using this approach. Please advise.
MacBook Pro
Posted on Jun 4, 2016 9:12 AM
If you're wanting to erase free space on an SSD drive you don't have to. On a SSD drive there's two states for each location on the drive, one or off. Once turned off there's no easy way to recover the data. There is no residual magnetization of the media from which data can be recovered. The following is from this Apple document: OS X: About Disk Utility's erase free space feature - Apple Support
Note: With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD. For more security, consider turning on FileVault encryption when you start using your SSD drive.
Running multiple passes over locations writing to them like with HDD drives only reduces the life expectancy of the drive.
Posted on Jun 4, 2016 9:25 AM