Erasing Files, Folders, and Unused Space

    WARNING: The effects of these commands are permanent and cannot be undone by any means. This is the intended result, but we just wanted to make sure you understand that.

Erasing a File

    To overwrite the data in a file with zeroes and then delete the file, open the File menu and choose Erase... This prevents anyone from examining the disk at a later time and extracting the contents of the file. Once a file has been erased, it cannot be recovered. The Erase action in the file list window erases the selected items in the window.

Erasing a Folder

    To erase all files in a folder and then delete the folder, open the File menu and choose Erase. Erasing a folder erases all subfolders as well.

Erasing Unused Space

    To overwrite all currently unused space on a volume with zeroes, open the Cleaning menu and choose Erase Unused Space. It does the same thing as Erase File, but applied to the portion of a volume not currently allocated to any files. Once done, no previously deleted files can be recovered by any means.

    If Erasing Is Interrupted
    To erase the unused space on a volume, File Buddy creates one or more files in the root directory of the volume* and fills them with 0's until they fill all available space on the volume (space not currently assigned to existing files). The files will have names starting with "FB Erasing" and ending with a number.
    Once all available space is filled, File Buddy deletes the files it created during the erasing process. If the process is interrupted for any reason such as a power outage or crash, File Buddy will terminate without having a chance to delete the files. If this happens, the Finder will state the volume has less space available than before the erasure process started because one or more files used to erase the space still exist.
    If this happens, simply drag the "FB Erasing xxxxxxx" files to the Trash and empty the trash.
    *Mac OS X: File Buddy attempts to place the files in the root directory. If for any reason it can't, it will attempt to create them in the Trash. It's possible that someone may not have sufficient privileges to erase a volume under Mac OS X.

Using Your Mac While Erasing

    You can continue to work in File Buddy and other programs while erasing unused space. Note, however, that as File Buddy erases the space it fills the disk, so some programs may need more disk space to run properly than is available during the erasure process. In Mac OS X this could affect the operating system's ability to provide memory since Mac OS X is heavily dependent on its virtual memory system, and virtual memory uses disk space when it needs more memory. For this reason, we recommend that erasing unused space be done during a time when other activities on your Macintosh are minimal. Once File Buddy is done erasing, it deletes the files and restores the available space to its previous value.

Using Available Memory
(A technical note for users of Mac OS 9)

    When erasing unused space, File Buddy uses part of its available memory as a buffer which is written to the erasing file. The more memory File Buddy has available to use while erasing a disk, the less time it will take to erase it. File Buddy will attempt to use up to 2 megabytes for the buffer, so to minimize the time needed to erase the unused space on a disk, make sure File Buddy has at least 2,500 K available to it if virtual memory is turned on, and at least 3,500 K if virtual memory is turned off. To set the amount of memory available to File Buddy, get info for File Buddy in the Finder and set the Preferred memory to the desired amount.

 


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