Writing over deleted files

[n0d3]

I searched for something of this sort in the forum, but I found nothing... if I missed it I'd be happy to receive a link to the other thread.

When I got my Mac I was happy about the Secure Delete function because occasionally I have information I'd like to permanently delete because I'm feeling like a security freak at the time. It's a really handy tool, but what if you delete a file without clicking secure delete? Then you've gotten rid of the reference but the files are still on the drive. That's nothing new to us... so what can be done to overwrite the data without recovering it and redeleting it? I only have one drive set up. The recovery tools require that you set up the programs on a different drive. I'd think that setting up a sort of partition from the drive that's already there wouldn't work though I could very well be wrong. Any suggestions for what to do?

 

[X-Istence]

If you are afraid of data that might be found, I might suggest just encrypting your entire home directory in the preferences pane, so that if they do get access to your laptop, they can't get the data back anyways.

As for writing over areas that might be unused, I personally just create a file that is about 80% my left over disk space, and then have it secure delete that file, that should cause enough bits to be erased that nothing should be left, this is however a very costly and long operation, and I don't suggest it.