Erase Free Space 7-Pass Problems

I can't seem to get "7-Pass Erase" to work. It will start, but it only makes it through to about half, on the progress bar, and then just sits in the same spot for hours. The other night I started it, waited a while, then put my pointer where the progress bar was, went to bed, then when I woke up after 7 hours it was still in the same spot. Did this several times and one time I couldn't quit DU or the OS, so I resorted to a force shutdown. Tried this on two of my machines with the same results a G4 and an MBP. BTW, "Zero Out Data" works fine most of the time. Is there a trick to getting this to work?
Thanks for any help,
Tony

The single pass of zeros should be enough for all except extreme paranoids, but you could try booting the install disk and running its Disk Utility. It may work better without OSX trying to use the disk while it is working.

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Erase free space fails

I am trying to erase the free space on my hard drive, but part way through I get an error message. I started up my MacBook from the OS-X cd and ran Disk Utility. Selected "Erase Free Space" (7-pass) and after it ran for a few hours, but before it was finished, it quit. This message was displayed: "Disk Utility internal error - Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility." I tried rebooting, and the same thing happened. I tried running Disk Repair and found no problems. Any suggestions?

Erasing Free Space Will Definitely Help Me and My Situation. Plus I've deleted or transferred files to an External HD, a ton of files(About 75%). And still the hard drive is reading FULL. The Erase Free Space Option just isn't working for some odd reason. So Erase Free Space Is Definitely What I'm Looking For. Any think you can think of, why it's not working properly?? And thanks for you speedy response also.

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.

'Erase Free Space Utility' problem

Hi everyone, I wonder if you could spare your time in helping me with what I believe is a bit of a fixable dilemma but I just am not sure how to fix the problem.
I ran the 'Erase Free Space' option on my hard disk through the Disc Utility application but unfortunatly the application crashed at around 30% completion and I am left with only 6.5MBs of free disk space (previously being 72MBs free).
I have found out how to fix the problem but really do not know how to access '/var/root/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems' as explained below to obtain and remove the files 'EFTFile1.sparseimage'.
I would be very very grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.
Many thanks.
"Disk Utility accomplishes the erase feature by creating large sparse image files in a preset directory. It then deletes them with the srm tool (secure remove) and an overwrite pattern of your choice. If Disk Utility is interrupted, this sparse image is left on the disk just taking up space. Starting another free space erase session makes another file, instead of cleaning up the previous one. So, as there are no checks in Disk Utility for cleaning up this failed process, so you have to hunt it down manually.
There are a variety of ways of doing this, but I’ll cut to the chase and give you the answer. The files are created in /var/root/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems and are sequential variations of the name EFTFile1.sparseimage. Simply remove these files (as root) to reclaim your free space and then start the process again to finish the task."
Message was edited by: Chris Kerr

Chris Kerr wrote:
I ran the 'Erase Free Space' option on my hard disk through the Disc Utility application but unfortunatly the application crashed at around 30% completion and I am left with only 6.5MBs of free disk space (previously being 72MBs free).
72 MB is way too little disk space for Mac OS X to run properly. You need to delete some files in order to give Mac OS X and applications more space. If that's why you're running "Erase Free Space", then you're not doing the right thing. Erase Free Space will overwrite all the free space on your hard drive with random data: the free space will remain free, but you will not get any extra free disk space after doing this. Erase Free Space's purpose is to make deleted data unrecoverable, for example if you deleted many sensitive files without using Secure Empty Trash and want to make sure the they can't be recovered.
You should be able to use Terminal to remove the sparseimage, but you should really delete or move a lot of stuff to another hard drive first; you need at least a few GB of free space if you want Mac OS X to run normally.

Disk Utility Problems - Erase Free Space

Today I decided to use disk utility to "Erase free space " on my MacbookPro. During the process it said it was creating a temporary file!
This took about 2 hours then the application stopped responding, so I clicked skip and ended up doing a force quit!
Unfortunately, this task did not complete but it seems to have added over 10GB to my hard drive.
Any ideas how I can find the file and delete it or should I consider restoring my Mac to yesterday using my Time machine backups.
Thanks
Keith

However, does anyone have any advice on how to use the "Erase Free Space " Utility
This option should only be used when you've insecurely deleted a file you meant to securely delete, and should not be used on a FAT32 drive with 4GB or more free space.
(57218)

Disk Utility erase free space problem

I tried to clean my hard drive by overwriting the free space using Disk Utility to make deleted files unrecoverable. But I got the message: "Your startup disk is almost full. Make room by deleting files." But my hard disk is 250GB (Capacity 232.6 GB) of which 197.4 GB is available and 35.2 GB used. I also have a 40 GB Iomega external hard drive which I use for automatic daily backup (using Chronosync). If I try to overwrite the free space on that drive with zeros, I get the message "Secure Erase Free Space failed -- Could not create temp file." There is 17.5 GB available. The Volume format is "Mac OS Extended (journaled)."

This may help:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1010.html

USB Flash Drive: Trying to recover space from "erase free space" problem. Finder shows no files i

Hi,
I have an 8gb flash usb drive. (recognizes 7.5gb)
I must have stop the operation or use erase free space orsomething stupid. Regardless, i just want to get it back to full capacity of7.5 gb. I think right now its only 6.2 gb. Finder shows no files inside thedrive. Let me know what i need to do. I try looking at different webpages aboutsparseimage file or 00 written in place of my missing 1.3 gb. But i dont knowhow to get it back. I am new to OSX, so please help me with clear instructions.Thanks

You can reformat it. Plug the drive in, launch Disk Utility (in your Alications> Utilities folder). Select the dove, theme erace/reformat it.
Just be carefully you accidentally don't erase any other external drives!

'erase free space' not secure - it doesn't seem to work?

Just wanted to point out that the erase free space option in Mountain Lion does not seem to work, at all.
A week ago I ran erase free space on my primary data drive then later, out of curiosity, I ran an inexpensive third party recovery program on the disk just to see what happened. Interestingly enough the recovery software was able to find and restore files that I had deleted over a year ago.
This has me thinking, so today I tried it again, only with a 7 pass erase this time. Nope, same thing. After a 7 pass erase (erase free space) this low end, less than $35 recovery software turns up tons of files, everything from stuff I just deleted a few days ago to stuff from over a year ago.
If I'm doing something wrong I would love for someone to point it out to me. Not that I'm toting state secrets or anything on my mac, but still - my privacy is important to me and I assume it is to others.
I'd encourage folks to try this out for themselves.
My set up is a 2011 macbook pro with an SSD as the boot drive, I've got a second harddrive installed in the optical bay and this is where my home folder lives. The secondary drive is the drive where I'm running erase free space.
The only thing that I can think of is that, even though the button is not greyed out, maybe I need to be booted to recovery in order to succesfully run erase free space on system drives?
Any input would be greatly appreciated, otherwise this seems like a pretty ugly security lapse on the part of Apple. Imagine if you're selling your machine and secure erasing before turnign it over to its new owner - and the new owner can run a $35 dollar recovery program and access everything on your machine.
Not good.

Thanks for your response, William.
I think that the issue may have to do with being booted to the system while trying to erase free space. I ran a 7 pass erase free space on a 1TB external Lacie drive this afternoon, the operation took a bit over 6 hours to complete and recovery sofatware is turning up nothing.
This is in contrast to the main drive, which my original post referenced, which is a 500gb 7200 rpm internal drive. A 7 pass secure erase took less than 5 minutes to complete - so, even though the drive is 1/2 the size, there's obviously something not right with the 7 minutes time to complete.
Tomorrow I'm going to try either booting to another account (which doesn't utilize this partcular disk) or booting to recovery and seeing what happens.
I have a feeling that this will solve the problem - I'll post back tomorrow evening.

Help with Erase Free Space URGENT

I'm desperate I'm having to ship my Dad's Macbook pro back to his work as his contract is finished an he asked me to delete all information from the laptop. I used the erase free space option 6 times option hit enter from the Laptop install disk and let it run, it had been running 24 hours when I pushed the skip button thinking it was taking too long it's been like that ever since so now about 18 hours. Please someone help me with this problem. If I was to pull the plug so to speak what would happen?
Cheers all help is hugely appreciated.

On my machine, Disk Utility offers, under the Security Options, a zero out data (one pass), a 7-pass, and a 35-pass option. What's a 6 times option? Or, do you mean you hit the erase free space option six times? If so, that wouldn't delete the information, it just writes to the free space, not the used space. AFAIK, you can pull the plug, boot the machine with the install disk, launch Disk Utility, and select one of the Security Options. Note, that it could take quite awhile. Just let it run until it finishes.

Does Erase Free Space Degrade Hard Drive?

I've noticed with my macbook that erasing free space takes bloody ages, 2 hours for 1 pass, 18 for 7 pass, 3 days for 35 pass.
This seems like an awful long time to have your laptop sitting on and open let alone your disc spinning and writing. Does this process degrade, slow down or have any seriously harmful side-effects to your hard drive?

My question is simply, 3 days of nonstop writing to zero out free space from insecure trash empties (some people might have important goverment docs, I don't know) seems like long enough to burn out your drive in one single process, no?
No, not unless the drive is already perilously close to failure when you begin the process.
And with their awkward sleep with lid closed standard feature, you have to leave the laptop sitting open and running... 3 days, surely that'll cause some problems?
Are you concerned that running the computer with its display open is hazardous to its health? Nothing could be farther from the truth. It cools itself more efficiently with the display open than with the display closed. Apart from that, having the lid open or closed makes no difference at all.
Out of curiosity, what do you consider "awkward" about having the computer go to sleep when you close the display?
I agree with Michael that if one were to do a 35-pass erase of free space every week, or even every month, it would become a significant factor in the longevity of the drive. But doing it a small handful of times over the life of the drive — say perhaps once a year — would account for only an insignificant portion of the drive's total use/operation.

HT3680 Erase Free Space Issues!!

When I Try To Erase Free Space On My HD, The Process Fails Repeatedly. With Any Option I Choose, Like 7 Pass, It Takes 2 Minutes For The Entire Process. And That's Obviously Wrong. I've Tried Almost Everything. And My Disk Is Reading FULL. It's Limiting Me Big Time. And Also Hindering Me From Upgrading To Mountain Lion. Anyone Out There, That Can Help Me With This Problem ASAP, Please??

Erasing Free Space Will Definitely Help Me and My Situation. Plus I've deleted or transferred files to an External HD, a ton of files(About 75%). And still the hard drive is reading FULL. The Erase Free Space Option just isn't working for some odd reason. So Erase Free Space Is Definitely What I'm Looking For. Any think you can think of, why it's not working properly?? And thanks for you speedy response also.

Erase Free Space vs Reformat Hard Drive

I am getting ready to sell my computer. In the past I have had troubles when I reformatted my hard and then reinstalled the OS. If I use "Erase Free Space" from the Disk Utility and choose 7 pass overwrite should I be confident that all deleted personal information will be securely removed?
Thanks
12" PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 768 MB RAM, Superdrive

It would be simpler, not to mention much, much faster, to do an Erase and Install of OS X. If you've had problems with the hard drive in the past, then I suggest doing the following before installing:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disk. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
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, if supported.) Click on the Options 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 will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
After formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Now proceed with the OS X installation. When the installation has completed DO NOT RESTART. Instead simply shut down the computer. When the new owner starts up the computer it will automatically start up in the Setup Assistant as if new out of the box.
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Help please - message after using the Erase Free Space function in Disk Ut

Please help. I've been using my Mac Mini for 6 months and decided I wanted to securely erase previously deleted files, and found the Erase Free Space facility in Disk Utilities. So I chose the option "7-pass Erase of deleted files", and left my Mac Mini to do its business.
At the end, I got the message that my startup disk is full, but ignored that message because I understand that's normal when free space has been deleted.
After doing a Restart, things seem to be running smoothly, but I have a Warning message which reads
Warning. The following disk images failed to mount:
Image: EFTFile1.sparseimage Reason: corrupt image.
What does this mean, please, and what do I have to do, if anything?
I'm completely new to this, so please explain clearly.
Thanks everyone!!

Hi again, i've resolved the problem, thanks. It was my inexperience that was helping confuse the issue.
Sorry to have taken your time. Thanks again for your input.

Help! iMac performing in erase free space for over 14 hours!

How long should 7-pass 'erase free space' of 69.9 GB take?
I'm giving my old iMac G4 to a young relative. After completing 'erase and install' of OS 10.4, to be sure data would not be easily accessible, I read a few threads in the Installation and Setup forum and decided to do a 7-pass erase of free space.
The message in the Disk Utility window counted down from 8 hours and then switched to "secure erasing file". The blue progress bar doesn't appear to be progressing but is stuck about 1/2 cm from the end.
It's now been going for 14 hours. This seems an extra-ordinarily long time, 'though, for all I know, zero-ing out could take 2 hours. Thinking back, I clicked on 7-pass twice, once via 'security options' then via 'erase free space'. Was that a major mistake?
Is 14 hours too long? And, if so, is it too late to click on 'skip'?

Well, I pressed 'skip' and little changed except that it reported "skipping", whatever that means. So I took courage in both hands, as it were: one to press 'quit' and the other to press 'continue' and ignore the warning that quitting could cause irreparable damage to the HD.
As far I can see, no problem but I'm going to run Drive 10 before I erase-and-install OS X again just so that I can command-Q setup assistant and leave my young relative to set it up for herself.
Many thanks for your help, both Toms too. I guess this question can be logged a 'solved'.
Anne

Time Capsule full after a "Erase Free Space" using Disk Utility

Hello,
I am facing some issues related to my Time Capsule.
Reviewing my past, I had a lot of backups on this, using Time Machine and it always worked pretty well. But after deleting some backups manually to reclaim disk space, this was not exactly freeing it.
Searching in the forum here, I saw that I could mount the backup sparsebundle image and map it into the Disk Utility. This always worked greatly too both for disk checking and reclaiming the space back.
The problem starts on the last Friday when I performed the operation again, but it started using the whole free space that I had and did not give it back.
Studying the case I found that it creates a temporary folder to store the file it creates to write the byte 0 on the disk. This file actually resides in the sparsebundle image and therefore I can see the file with 200GB, for example, in the Finder, this is a split in bands (8MB) just like the backup is. After the disk gets full, the Disk Utility should delete the file properly and give me back the space safely.
Right now my Time Capsule has 0 byte free and I can't do anything on it beyond redo the the Erase Free Space operation. When I do it, it starts writing the temporary file again and the problem repeats itself.
I know that if I backup the data and really erase the disk, I'll get it back, but this is not an option for me because I want a smart solution for this.
The only thing that changed between when it worked and now is the 10.5.6 update that I made and I'd like that it's not the root of the issue.
Is there any suggestion or general stuff I could do to fix it?
Did anybody already face the same issue?
If anyone needs more details to help me out of this, just let me know.
Thanks and regards,
Eduardo

Just another thing to add, I'd like a good solution for this as the redo operation from Disk Utility takes around 2 days and then it just "dies".

Erase Free Space 7-Pass Problems

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