Alternate File Shredder is a small app that lets you permanently delete files. Its interface is simple and easy to understand and, if you select this option during its install process, the app also adds a Send to File Shredder erasing option to the right-click menu from Windows. Alternate File Shredder lets you delete both individual files. If you’re planning to sell a Mac that boots from an SSD, or you have an old Flash drive or SSD you want securely erase, this article has the details. It’s been awhile since I sold an old Mac. The last app in the category of best file shredder apps for Android is FShred. Developed by Emile Gee, this nifty app makes sure that your data is deleted permanently and is safe from prying eyes. FShred has been tested over ample file recovery applications and none of them have been able to recover any of the deleted data. If your Mac is with an SSD and you want to check whether it’s TRIM enabled, see this article for how. How to Permanently Delete files on SSD-Based Mac? It’s quite simple. Just drag the files to Trash or right-click and select Move to Trash, then open the Trash app and select Delete Permanently. Unfortunately, due to the way SSDs, USB flash drives, and SD cards work, it is difficult, if not impossible, to securely delete both individual files and free space. As a result, your best bet in terms of protection is to use encryption. That way, even if the file is still on the disk, it will at least look like gibberish to anyone who gets.
Data security is the most important concern due to the cyber attacks and security loopholes here and there. While deleting the data from your Mac, you should be aware that the data could be recovered with the bunch of recovery tools available online. So, to make sure that once deleted remains deleted and unrecoverable, you could use a file shredder software on your Mac. A file shredder is a tool that permanently deletes files on your computer. There are a lot of file shredder software available for your Mac in the market.
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So, in this post, we have compiled a list of best file shredder software for Mac.
1. TuneUpMyMac
TuneUpMyMac is multiple purpose app, as it also serves as an adept file shredder utility. It not only safely deletes the sensitive information from your hard drive, but also boosts the performance of your Mac by managing data storage. The data removal is permanent so there is no chance of recovery. It keeps your privacy and security intact as it removes all the private data from your Mac which can make you vulnerable. The app also helps you to uninstall the apps along with the associated files from your Mac. The software has several other features that enhance your Mac’s performance, thus making it as our top pick. The app is available for OSx 10.7 and above. The app can be downloaded from here-
2. MacClean
One of the best file shredder software for Mac, Mac Clean’s File Eraser is available for free. This fast, secure app wipes the files from your hard drive and makes them unrecoverable.It also removes the accumulated junk data on your system to manage the storage space on your hard drive. The app secures your Internet activities from hackers and spying entities by cleaning the caches, cookies, session, history and saved passwords and more. It efficiently wipes out the Facetime history and iMessages. It protects your computer from all kind of malicious activities.
3. Stellar Wipe Mac
Stellar Wipe Mac is a file eraser app that helps to erase the sensitive data on your drive completely. The software uses powerful wiping algorithms in it and makes sure your deleted files remain unrecoverable. The user interface is simple and easy to use. It completely wipes system traces, recent file histories, internet browsing data, instant messaging information and internet browsing data. You can also remove a particular file or entire folder. It also enables you to schedule the wiping process.
Must Read: 5 Best Disk Cloning App For Mac
4. Mac Optimizer Pro
Mac Optimizer Pro is an app that permanently deletes files on your Mac. Though, the app can be used for multiple purposes such as securing your mac and removing the junk files. One of the features of the app is file shredder, to protect the privacy and data security, Mac Optimizer Pro uses military-grade data shredder powered by multiple-overwrite technology. Best radio app mac 2017. The data deleted by the app could not be recovered by any recovery software.
5. File Shredder
With File Shredder app, you can simply right-click (secondary click) or drag the file to erase the sensitive data on your Mac, USB drive or any other external device.It has two option Shred and Secure Shred, the difference between the two is: you cannot recover the data deleted with Secure Shred as it overwrites the data on the disk. It uses the secure algorithm for the process. You can choose out of four algorithms in preferences: Secure Shred: 1 pass (fastest), 3 passes (DoE standard), 7 passes (DoD standard), or 35 passes (Gutmann deletion, safest). In case you have selected the wrong file to be shredded then you can press Abort button to stop further deletion.
6. Cleanmymac 3
The all in one app, Cleanmymac 3 is one of the best apps that permanently erases files on your Mac. It wipes the data from your hard drives permanently so that no third party software could recover the files. As Cleanmymac doesn’t only discard the data but also overwrites it. The app can also act as a Smart Cleanup, Junk File remover, Uninstaller. Moreover, it also protects your privacy.
Must Read: 5 Best Uninstaller Apps For Mac
Best Mac Apps To Permanently Erase Files Ssd Flash Drive7. Permanent Eraser
It is one of the best file shredder software for Mac. Permanent Eraser uses additional wiping techniques such as the 3-pass DoE or 35-pass Gutmann algorithms. This tool overwrites the data multiple times, scrambles the original file name, and truncates the file size to nothing and before permanent eraser completely unlinks the data from the system. Once your data has been wiped, it can not be recovered. The tool is available for free.
8. ShredIt
ShredIt is one of the best permanent erasers for Mac. It deletes files from your hard disk and makes them irrecoverable which helps you protect your data. The app has a user-friendly interface. It uses DoD, DoE, NSA, Gutmann standards to ensure the privacy and security. The app is perfect to delete files securely, free the disk space, external drive, CD-RW and more. The inbuilt safety features like Confirm before Shred, Safe Place, Don’t Panic and more makes the process easy. The utility tool works on Mac as well as Windows.
Best Mac Apps To Permanently Erase Files Ssd Hard Drive9. Incinerator
Incinerator is one of the best file shredder software for Mac. It permanently erases the confidential data from your Mac and gives you a peace of mind. It uses a technique which makes sure that the deleted file could never be recovered. For that, it writes over every byte of the file before wiping it completely. The app is available for free on Mac Store.
10. DoYourData Super Eraser For Mac
Do You Data is one of the best permanent erasers for Mac as it securely removes the data from your hard drive. It can wipe private information, financial data, business documents and more safely and completely to avoid any threats.You can erase data from your hard disk, storage media, and digital devices. The app is easy to use as you can erase the data in simple three steps.
Must Read: 10 Best Mac Anti-Malware Software
So, this is the list of the best file shredder software for Mac, go ahead and install a file shredder and keeps the deletion of the confidential data permanent. Let us know in the comment section which one works for you.
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7-20-2018
Note: Modern versions of macOS will prompt you to use FileVault 2 to encrypt your entire drive. We highly recommend you take this step to protect your data. If you encrypt your entire drive, you don’t have to worry much about doing secure deletion since the master encryption key is protected with a password that you control, and that you can change or erase to make data on the drive irretrievable. More information is available on encrypting with FileVault 2.
The instructions below should only be used for securely deleting data from spinning drives. These instructions apply only to traditional disk drives, and not to Solid State Drives (SSDs), which are standard in modern computers, USB keys/USB thumb drives, or SD cards/flash memory cards. Secure deletion on SSDs, USB flash drives, and SD cards is very hard! This is because these types of drives use a technique called wear leveling and do not provide low-level access to the bits as stored on the drive. (You can read more about why this causes problems for secure deletion here.) If you’re using an SSD or a USB flash drive, you can jump to the section below.
Did you know that when you move a file on your computer into your computer's trash folder and empty the trash, the file is not completely erased? Computers normally don't “delete” files; when you move a file to the trash, your computer just makes the file invisible and allows the space it took up to be overwritten by something else sometime in the future. Therefore, it may be weeks, months, or even years before that file is overwritten. Until this happens, that “deleted” file is still on your disk; it’s just invisible to normal operations. And with a little work and the right tools (such as “undelete” software or forensic methods), that “deleted” file can be retrieved.
https://cleverdo655.weebly.com/blog/5-best-mac-apps. So, what’s the best way to delete a file forever? Ensure it gets overwritten immediately. This makes it difficult to retrieve what used to be written there. Your operating system probably already has software that can do this for you—software that can overwrite all of the “empty” space on your disk with gibberish and thereby protect the confidentiality of deleted data.
Secure Deletion on macOS Anchor link
On OS X 10.4 to 10.10, you can securely delete files by moving them to the Trash and then selecting Finder > Secure Empty Trash.
The Secure Empty Trash feature was removed in OS X 10.11 because Apple felt that it could not guarantee secure deletion on the fast flash (SSD) drives that most of its modern models now use.
If you use a traditional hard drive with OS X 10.11, and are comfortable with the command line, you can use the Mac's
srm command to overwrite the file. Fuller instructions (in English) are available here.
srm was removed in OS X 10.12, but it is still possible to install.
In the latest versions of macOS, you can use
rm -P to overwrite the file. This command overwrites the file contents several times.
A Warning About the Limitations of Secure Deletion Tools Anchor link
Remember that the advice above only deletes files on the disk of the computer you’re using. None of the tools above will delete backups that were made to somewhere else on your computer, another disk or USB drive, a “Time Machine,” on an email server, in the cloud, or sent to your contacts. In order to securely delete a file, you must delete every copy of that file, everywhere it was stored or sent. Additionally, once a file is stored in the cloud (e.g. via Dropbox or some other file-sharing service) there’s usually no way to guarantee that it will be deleted forever.
Unfortunately, there’s also another limitation to secure deletion tools. Even if you follow the advice above and you’ve deleted all copies of a file, there is a chance that certain traces of deleted files may persist on your computer, not because the files themselves haven't been properly deleted, but because some part of the operating system or some other program keeps a deliberate record of them.
There are many ways in which this could occur, but two examples should suffice to convey the possibility. On Windows or macOS, Microsoft Office may retain a reference to the name of a file in the “Recent Documents” menu, even if the file has been deleted (Office might sometimes even keep temporary files containing the contents of the file). LibreOffice may keep as many records as Microsoft Office, and a user's shell history file may contain commands that include the file's name, even though the file has been securely deleted. In practice, there may be dozens of programs that behave like this.
It's hard to know how to respond to this problem. It is safe to assume that even if a file has been securely deleted, its name will probably continue to exist for some time on your computer. Overwriting the entire disk is the only way to be 100% sure the name is gone. Some of you may be wondering, “Could I search the raw data on the disk to see if there are any copies of the data anywhere?” The answer is yes and no. Searching the disk will tell you if the data is present in plaintext, but it won't tell you if some program has compressed or otherwise coded references to it. Also, be careful that the search itself does not leave a record! The probability that the file's contents may persist is lower, but not impossible. Overwriting the entire disk and installing a fresh operating system is the only way to be 100% certain that records of a file have been erased.
Secure Deletion When Discarding Old Hardware Anchor link
If you want to throw a piece of hardware away or sell it on eBay, you'll want to make sure no one can retrieve your data from it. Studies have repeatedly found that computer owners usually fail to do this―hard drives are often resold chock-full of highly sensitive information. So, before selling or recycling a computer, be sure to overwrite its storage media with gibberish first. And even if you're not getting rid of it right away, if you have a computer that has reached the end of its life and is no longer in use, it's also safer to wipe the hard drive before stashing the machine in a corner or a closet. Darik's Boot and Nuke is a tool designed for this purpose, and there are a variety of tutorials on how to use it across the web (including here).
Some full-disk encryption software has the ability to destroy the master key, rendering a hard drive's encrypted contents permanently incomprehensible. Since the key is a tiny amount of data and can be destroyed almost instantaneously, this represents a much faster alternative to overwriting with software like Darik's Boot and Nuke, which can be quite time-consuming for larger drives. However, this option is only feasible if the hard drive was always encrypted. If you weren't using full-disk encryption ahead of time, you'll need to overwrite the whole drive before getting rid of it.
Best Mac Apps To Permanently Erase Files Ssd External DriveDiscarding CD- or DVD-ROMs
When it comes to CD- or DVD-ROMs, you should do the same thing you do with paper―shred them. There are inexpensive shredders that will chew them up. Never just toss a CD- or DVD-ROM in the garbage unless you're absolutely sure there's nothing sensitive on it.
Secure Deletion on Solid-state Disks (SSDs), USB Flash Drives, and SD Cards
Unfortunately, due to the way SSDs, USB flash drives, and SD cards work, it is difficult, if not impossible, to securely delete both individual files and free space. As a result, your best bet in terms of protection is to use encryption. That way, even if the file is still on the disk, it will at least look like gibberish to anyone who gets ahold of it and can’t force you to decrypt it. At this point in time, we cannot provide a good general procedure that will definitely remove your data from an SSD. If you want to know why it’s so hard to delete data, read on.
Best Mac Apps To Permanently Erase Files Ssd Drive
As we mentioned above, SSDs and USB flash drives use a technique called wear leveling. At a high level, wear leveling works as follows. The space on every disk is divided into blocks, kind of like the pages in a book. When a file is written to disk, it’s assigned to a certain block or set of blocks (pages). If you wanted to overwrite the file, then all you would have to do is tell the disk to overwrite those blocks. But in SSDs and USB drives, erasing and re-writing the same block can wear it out. Each block can only be erased and rewritten a limited number of times before that block just won’t work anymore (the same way if you keep writing and erasing with a pencil and paper, eventually the paper might rip and be useless). To counteract this, SSDs and USB drives will try to make sure that the amount of times each block has been erased and rewritten is about the same, so that the drive will last as long as possible (thus the term wear leveling). As a side effect, sometimes instead of erasing and writing the block a file was originally stored on, the drive will instead leave that block alone, mark it as invalid, and just write the modified file to a different block. This is kind of like leaving the page in the book unchanged, writing the modified file on a different page, and then just updating the book’s table of contents to point to the new page. All of this occurs at a very low level in the electronics of the disk, so the operating system doesn’t even realize it’s happened. This means, however, that even if you try to overwrite a file, there’s no guarantee the drive will actually overwrite it, and that’s why secure deletion with SSDs is so much harder.
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