Disk Utility Erase - Default Setting?

Hi everyone, what is the default setting when erasing the HD from Disk Utility? Is it 'Don't Erase Data' option? I didn't check the Security Options before erasing but after it did erase the first time, I went back and used the 7 pass option. Is it safe to assume that all my data is erased from the HD now after taking these steps?
Thanks
JF

Unless you're a Russian/Chinese/No. Korean spy or go out with Bin Ladin's descendants, you're golden already. And if you do form part of the beforementioned groups, the NSA/CIA/ETC. have tools that can overcome anything you can do with DU.
So don't worry about it.

Similar Messages

Disk utility/erase and lost HD free space

HELP!
In an attempt to clear up space from deleted files I ran the disk utility>erase>erase free space>35-Pass erase deleted files programme. Then did verify disk permissions and repair disk permissions.
Iv now dropped from 7.8GB of free space to 1.8 of free space on the HD. So that things aren't working right. Plus, I can't download music that I bought on iTunes because there isn't enough space on the HD.
How do I get all that space back? What did I do wrong?
All I was doing was trying to free up space from deleted files that Iv been getting rid of. I know that when you delete from one portion of the HD it doesn't always delete it totally off the system only the portion where you're looking at it.
HELP

Do you by any chance have FileVault enabled?

Disk Utility - Erase Free Space-what does it really do?

Hey Forum,
I am using mac os 10.6.4 on my macbook and i have a doubting question for quite sometimes, what does disk utility erase free space feature really do? Does it gives you more free space? or what? I know it prevents the recovery of deleted files but i want to know what more it does and do not do? Like, now my hdd free space kept increasing and decreasing, by a few 100 mbs or 50mbs etc, so do i erase free space so to solve this problem? Ok, i do not only want to know does it solve the previous problem, but also the questions stated in the whole long paragraph i have wrote. If you know anything related to disk utility's erase free space, feel free to tell me!
Pls help me, I need you guys' help!
Thank you.
Regards
Ala.

Erase free space simply writes zeros over the space occupied by deleted files to prevent data recovery. That's all it does. It does not give you extra disk space.
Your disk space goes up and down a bit because the system creates temporary files and logs which take up space, such as the Safari cache. You can clear these file using a utility like Onyx (which is free)

Killed Disk Utility Erase Free Space. Now 0 available

(I erroneously posted this earlier to the Safari forum; posting here again)
I ran Disk Utility "Erase free space" on my iMac G5 250GB boot drive (I had about 130GB free). It ran for about 50 minutes, and got to "creating temp file" and then seemed to hang (thermometer didn't move for 20 minutes). So I force killed it. It seems to have left that "temp file" that takes up all available space since Disk Utility now reports 0 bytes available (and MS Entourage says insufficient free space and exits). I ran Finder "Secure empty trash" to delete 57 files with no error. But Disk Utility still says 0 bytes available.
First Aid "Verify Disk" reports no problems. "Verify Permissions" reports no problems.
Is there a way to regain my available space?
Thanks,
Ken

Restart did it. Thanks very much.
Ken

Tip on How to Monitor Disk Utility Erase Free Space

When you use the Disk Utility Erase Free Space option, it can sometimes appear to hang and the progress bar isn't always a help.
By accident, I discovered that if you run the Activity Monitor and select Disk Usage, you can in fact monitor progress. The Space Free will gradually tick down, sometimes as slowly as 100K/sec, then when it hits zero, it will quicklt tick back up. If you observe this, just let Disk Utility complete to avoid any issues; Activity Monitor makes it easier to be patiet about this.
Hope this helps.

Great tip, thanks for the post!

Disk Utility erase fails after computer wakes up

I'm having an annoying problem with Disk Utility on OS X Lion 10.7.5 failing to erase a harddrive thats plugged into a HDD Docking Station via USB after computer wakes up from screen-off. I have an OCZ Agility 4 SATAIII 512.11 Gb SSD. I'm trying to do a complete erase with 7-Pass Erase so I can use this SSD for my Sony VAIO Laptop so I can ready it for fresh install for Ubuntu.
Now the problem with Disk Utility is that when I've selected 7-Pass Erase, I go away and leave the computer to do it's thing while it erases it, however when I come back and wake the computer screen to come back on, Disk Utility then tells me the erase failed. –– In my System Preferences for Power Saving settings I have the computer set to NEVER sleep, but only put the screen off after a while when not in use (ie; after 30 minutes). My other Sys Prefs settings are also set to ask for login after waking, I've not yet tested without this setting turned off to see if it's cause of problem, but I'll probably give it a shot anyway and see what happens. But I don't see how that would cause the problem since anything working in the background should still remain active while the screen is off just like Time Machine does for example when it does backups since it's USB powered.
Anyway… I think is either some kind of bug/error in Disk Utility or OS X itself. I've tried other Hard Drives and SSD's and they've all worked just about the same, and I don't think it's the HDD Docking Station either because it mounts everything perfectly and runs fine for continus use, I just hope there's a workable solution to fix this annoying problem when waking the screen from sleep. I have tested that it is screen-off that's causing it to fail by pressing the following keys Ctrl + ⇧ + ⏏ to put the screen to sleep, then waking again then entering my password to get back in. I have 1 other thing I've yet to try out, I've currently got it plugged in via USB port on my keyboard, I'll have to try it out on my iMac's main USB's ports to see if that may be part of the problem too.

Please boot into Internet Recovery (Command+Opt+R) and ensure you see the spinning globe. If you do, you can use diskutil cs commands to initialize your disk and re-install/restore from a TM backup.

Disk Utility - Erase Free Space - Creating Temporary File Freeze

I used "Erase Free Space" with Disk Utility after trashing several files I no longer wanted on the hard drive or recovered. I used "Zero Out Deleted Files" option. It took over 12 hours before an error message appeared "Your start up disk is almost full. You need to make more space available on your start up disk by deleting files." I thought that was what I was doing. Disk Utility continued but got stuck on "Creating Temporary File." I force quit Disk Utility after several more hours. I had to manually shut down the computer because the restart command wouldn't work. It rebooted and appears to be OK. Evidently, this temporary file consumes significant amounts of disk space. This is an older iMac with 10.4.11 (18 GHz PowerPC G5) - I know, pretty old but I still have OS 9 on it and several files I need to extract before I trash it.
1. Should I do nothing? The iMac seems to be working fine.
2. How do I know if this Temporary File exists and consuming space? Spotlight doesn't find it. Where is it?
3. Is my start up disk in fact almost full? How would I know that?
Thanks!

Then I would not do any secure erasing. It's exceptionally time consuming and unnecessary. Before you take it in for recycling boot it from your OS X installer DVD. Do this:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
A one-pass Zero Data option is all that is required to prevent access to your erased files.

Disk utility erase problem

I am trying to get my ibook G4 ready for sale. I want to do a secure erase of my hard drive. I followed Apple's instructions on the topic, did a boot from the CD, chose disk utility, then erase, then options, I chose 8 times random, then clicked to go ahead. It ran all day (I expected that) and into the night. When I woke up and checked on it, I saw that it was stuck on "partitioning", the blue progress bar was only about half way, and I had the spinning beach ball. An hour later, no change. So I forced a power down. Can anyone tell me what went wrong? It's a 30g Fujitsu original equipment drive and I use OS 10.3.3.

There's really no need to zero data more than one pass. Do the following:
Prepare Your Mac for Sale
Boot from the OS X Installer Disc One that came with the computer. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities (Installer menu if using Panther or Jaguar) menu. After DU loads select the startup volume from the left side list then click on the Erase tab. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then click on the Options button. Select the one pass Zero Data option and click on the OK button. Then click on the Erase button.
Note: You can skip the Zero Data option if you are not concerned about removing sensitive personal data from the hard drive. If you choose to skip this part of the process then it is possible for others to recover data from the hard drive. The Zero Data procedure will prevent others from getting access to your personal information.
This process will take 30 minutes to several hours depending upon the size of the hard drive. After formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Now complete the OS X installation. At the completion of the installation do not restart the computer. Instead just shut it off. The next user will be presented with the Setup Assistant when they turn on the computer just as it would if new out of the box.

Disk Utility erased my volume, but it said it wouldn't!

I have a 250GB external hard drive that was formatted as Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled). I had about 144 GB of data on it. I have used started using Boot Camp and wanted to be able to use the external hard drive when running Windows, so I thought I would try creating a FAT32 partition with the empty space. I went into Disk Utility and set it up to add a volume of FAT32 with the remaining space, and when I clicked on the non-empty portion it told me the "volume would not be erased." Excellent. So I started the partitioning process, and lo and behold, my entire external hard drive is empty! I have two partitions now like I wanted, but the 144 GB partition has no data on it. What gives? Is there a way to get the data back without resorting to some data recovery service? This isn't cool.
Message was edited by: gbuell

Well, I certainly will admit that possibility, but it seemed really cut and dry to me. I'm not sure what I would have missed. But oh well. I don't know much about data recovery - is it a "sure thing" that the files will be found, given that this just happened recently, or is there a good chance I won't get anything out of it?

Disk Utility erase tab for hard disk is missing after accidental OS deletion when installing Win 8.1 (BootCamp)

Hi there everyone,
This is my first post and I hope I can get this issue resolved with your help .
So the issue that I am having is that my Disk Utility is not showing giving me the option to reformat my entire hard drive.
The reason I want to this is because my Boot Camp Assistant won't partition my drive. This error comes up:
So after looking through the internet and forums i couldn't resolve this Boot Camp issue. So I decided to try and just wipe out my whole disk but as you can see I am unable to do that.
Prior to this issue, I had tried to download Windows 8.1 using a bootable USB stick and have accidentally deleted my Macintosh HD partition from the Windows install menu by opening up a terminal (fn+option+F10 was the key used to open up this terminal if I remember correctly). I was pretty upset about that, thankfully I have a backup around. Not knowing what to do I proceeded to installing Windows 8.1 anyway. Half way through the installation there was an error which I did not record. I simply exited the installer and proceeded to the Recovery System start up menu and it installed a version of OS X Lion from the internet. Then I installed Yosemite thinking everything is OK.
I decided to try to install Windows 7 now and the issue mentioned at the beginning ensued. Previously there was a disk0s1 and disk0s2 that can be seen from the Disk Utility but I could delete one of them. The other one I could only erase but could not delete the partition itself. From terminal i determined these two partitions were from the previous Windows installation attempt. The size was relatively small for both.
I ran a disk repair for the Macintosh HD volume and this error pops up:
I am using MacBook Pro (15-inch, early 2011) with:
2.2 GHz Intel Core i7
4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphic 3000
750.16 GB TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF (SATA)
Yosemite V10.10.1
Below are the drive info from terminal:
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk0
   1:                  Apple_HFS disk0s1                 314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s2
   3:          Apple_CoreStorage                         748.7 GB   disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s4
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *748.4 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s3
                                 C0E588EC-8B91-43D2-8493-392DB9911387
                                 Unencrypted
and
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group CF5FCF1D-64F3-4F5C-8A32-583BDF73FA2A
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         748741939200 B (748.7 GB)
    Free Space:   18960384 B (19.0 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 79D6A32D-71A9-479B-82AF-E287ABF820E9
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s3
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     748741939200 B (748.7 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 5A69641B-025B-438B-A572-AE008B8138B0
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume C0E588EC-8B91-43D2-8493-392DB9911387
            Disk:                  disk1
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          748370657280 B (748.4 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            Yes (no decryption required)
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
I hope someone out there can help me out here. I have tried all I could to no avail. Looking forward to your replies
Cheers

Please boot into Internet Recovery (Command+Opt+R) and ensure you see the spinning globe. If you do, you can use diskutil cs commands to initialize your disk and re-install/restore from a TM backup.

Help! Can I recover Disk Utility erased files?

Hi guys,
Yesterday I was trying to install Leopard because I had software problem that made my ibook get stuck on the loading screen.
Anyway, I was on my last step before it started to install when I got a message saying that I didn't have enough disk space to install the CD. I had just 2.7 GB available and the system required 11 GB. After trying to figure out what to do, I saw the Installer Menu Bar, clicked Open *Disk Utility*, clicked on Erase window, then clicked on one of the drives I saw on the left window. I didn't choose the 27.9 GB TOSHIBA disk, but the one under.
Then from the Volume Format drop-down menu, I selected Mac OS Extended, and selected security option: "Don't Erase Data". Finally, on the right pane of the Disk Utility window, I clicked the Erase tab., and suddenly I had 27 GB available
I thought that this “Erase” option just deleted previous deleted files, but not my whole hard disk.
Then I went back to the install window, and clicked “Install"...knowing that I maybe lost all my data.
I have tried to find my pictures and documents, but they are no where to find.
Have I lost all my data? Is it possible to get it recovered?
Please help me!
Thanks in advance!

sorry, but you are too far into this in order to be able to recover much. Data Rescue II or File Salvage are 2 decent utilities but you then installed software on top of your drive. This is assuring that a huge chunk of that drive is gone forever.
what disk utility meant was that it wouldn't securly delete the data - that is write stuff on top of it. you did just a basic delete / format which deletes the info containing pointers to the files, not the actual files themselves.
but installing OS X after that is going to permanatley delete 11GBs or so of data.
you will need an external drive to even begin this process & there's no garuntee it will work. you can try data rescue for free to see if it finds anything, as file salvage does too.
at this point, it's a shot in the dark.
ALWAYS keep backups & NEVER erase a drive with such important info.
http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?mainpage=product_info&productsid=1
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php
Message was edited by: kmac1036

Disk Utility - Erase Free Space

Hey Forum,
I am using mac snow leopard on my macbook and I wanted to erase the free space on my hard drive, so is the zero-out free space enough, or do I need the 7-pass erase free space. I just wanted more disk space, thats it. So can anyone tell me what are each options for? And do i need to 7-pass erase if i just wanted more disk space?
I await your favorable replies.
Thank you.
Regards.
Ala.

As The hatter says, the erase free space option has nothing to do with creating more free disk space -- the space is already free.
If you are confused about this, just open Disk Utility to the "Erase" tab & click the purple question mark at the bottom of the window. This will open Disk Utility Help to the topic *Erasing disks*. Refer to the last subject, *Securely erasing empty space* & if necessary click the link below it to go to the help topic *Erasing free disk space*, which explains this function in more detail.
FWIW, should you ever need to use this security function, a one pass secure erase is probably adequate to make the data unrecoverable.

7-pass, or zero out-Disk Utility Erase Free Space

Hey Forum,
I want to clear my erase free space on disk utility. And I am confused, whether to use 7-pass or zero-out? Any suggestions which one to use. Is zero out enough, or is 7-pass too much, any suggestions of whether to use either of them is appreciated, thank you.
Ala.
P.S. What are zero-out, 7-pass, and the 35 thing for and their differences?

There is no need to post the same question twice, especially in the same forum.
Regarding what you can find with Google, an overly simplified or out of date treatment of the topic may lead you to the wrong conclusions. For example, the DoD 5220-22M standard is obsolete (& never recommended a 7 pass erase to begin with) & the 35 pass erase was intended for old, pre-2001 drives.
For modern ATA drives like you will find in any Mac capable of running Snow Leopard, one or at most a few zero data passes will do all any software-based secure erase method can do.
If you need verification of that, refer to the Epilogue section of Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory, the seminal paper on the subject by the author of the 35 pass method.

Disk Utility Erase Free Space Option Nonexistant

Have an iMAC 1 GHZ PowerPC G4 256 MB DDR SDRAM OS 10.3.9. According to various google results I should be able to call up Disk Utilities>Partition>Erase>Erase Free Space. Its not there. (Its exactly where it should be on a nearby G5 running 10.5.8.).
It will allow me to erase the entire disk or either of two partitions but the Erase Free Space isn't just grayed out, it is completely missing.
1) The hard drive was partitioned at some point in the past I think to get around some admin thing. One partition has 51 out of 60 GB filled, the other has 12.4 of 16.3 GB filled.
2) Don't ask about the admins, my Entourage has been broken for 9 months - I am not joking.
3) My computer knowledge is spotty - you've been warned.
Help!

Try starting the iMac in Target Disk Mode while attached to one of your newer computers with a firewire cable. This basically makes the iMac an external hard drive. I've not tried this but you should then be able to use a newer version of Disk Utility on that drive.
[How to use FireWire target disk mode|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661] includes description of hardware and software requirements.
[What to do if your Mac doesn't enter FireWire Target Disk Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75414], also read about [Open Firmware Password Protection|http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/openfirmwarepassword.html] which can disable Target Disk Mode.
I'm not a technician but I don't think it "misses" areas, it's just more a matter of covering up what was written there before. Think of it as you write something on a piece of paper, then erase it and write something down in the same space. If you look closely you can see what was written there before. Now erase that again and write something else. It'll be pretty difficult to make out what was written there the very first time. Do that 7 times and it will be very, very, very difficult. Do that 32 times and it will be impossible. However, all that erasing and writing will take its toll on the paper and take a long time. I'd say anything more than a erase once would really have to be justified by very sensitive data. Anybody wanting to recover the data would have to use pretty specialized equipment.

Disk Utility: erasing free space

I read a recent magazine feature about file security and, based on its advice, clicked the Erase Free Space button in Disk Utility to overwrite the free space on my hard drive.
Everything ran smoothly until the last minute, when the countdown switched to "Creating Temporary File". After five minutes, a dialog box appeared warning me that the start-up disk was almost full.
I'm not concerned that I might lose material on the start-up disk since I have an external drive as a complete bootable back-up of the hard drive. But:
1. What's is being created in this temporary file and why?
2. How do I get Disk Utility just to erase the free space next time and not bother with the temporary file that seems to fill all the space (and more) that has just been cleaned?
Thanks in advance.
PowerMac G4 867MhZ Mac OS X (10.4.6) iGB RAM
PowerMac G4 867MhZ Mac OS X (10.4.6) iGB RAM

You're Welcome Norman!
I'm happy that I could help!
Also, I notice that you have not marked your topic as answered, nor utilized the Helpful or Solved options. That may be intentional, but, if you are not aware of the benefits, of using that function, here is some information.
When you mark the appropriate posts as Helpful (5 pts) 2 available, or Solved (10 pts) 1 available, you are Thanking the contributors, by awarding them points.
In threads with multiple replies, it also alerts other readers, to which answers may have been helpful, or solved the issue.
This info, and more, can be viewed by clicking on
? Help & Terms of Use, located under your login name, on all "Discussions" pages.
Specifically What are question answers?.
The Helpful and Solved buttons, that award points, are to the left of the Reply button in each response.
These are not the same as these Which do not award points, as explained Here.
Thank You, for considering extending the courtesy, of awarding stars in Discussions, as this is not a requirement, nor mandatory.
ali b

Disk Utility Erase - Default Setting?

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