Erase FreeSpace Option

Question

Level 1

5 points

Erase FreeSpace Option

So i was looking through disk utility and stumbled upon an option for my hard drive that erases free space. when i googled it for bit i came across information that mentioned how it keeps the hard drive intact but makes all free space unable to recover deleted files that were deleted before, without effecting the information already on the hard rive. is this a good idea to do for a mac on rare occasions, is it like defragmenting the hard drive and or speed it up to increase stability and performance? any help would be great.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10), MID 2012 edition

Posted on May 27, 2015 3:59 PM

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Answer 1

petermac87

Level 5

7,447 points

May 27, 2015 4:05 PM in response to phantom1421

I would suggest you do not do it. I have seen it used as you wish to with disastrous results. Macs do not require defraging.

Cheers

Pete

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Answer 2

Rysz

Level 8

44,391 points

May 27, 2015 4:05 PM in response to phantom1421

This has nothing to do with defragmentation. Defrag is performed automatically, in the background, by the OS.

Erase Free Space is a security measure to prevent anyone from possibly reading otherwise deleted information. For normal users it's a waste of time, but if it will you sleep better at night, there's no harm in it.

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 27, 2015 4:06 PM in response to phantom1421

It's completely unnecessary except as a security measure. It is not defragmenting the drive nor will it speed up or increase the stability and performance of the computer in any way.

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