- Let’s take a look at how to erase free space and securely erase the hard drive on your Mac. Why erase free space on your Mac hard drive? Here’s a quick look at some top reasons to erase your Mac’s free space: You’re selling an old Mac or a used hard drive. You work with top-secret non-disclosure agreements.
- To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive. If you're using macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings. In Photos, choose Photos Preferences, then click iCloud.
An formally supported Mac OS X or macOS suitable computer systems are required. 1.5 GB is the minimum available hard drive space requirement. For the sake of NetUpdate security updates, an internet connection is also needed. The suitable languages with the Mac Washing Machine are English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.
It's estimated that every year globally, we generate 40 million tons of electronic waste. That's like throwing away 800 laptops every second. Unless you securely clean your free space or wipe your hard drive, there's potentially a lot of recoverable personal data floating around.
Are you looking to erase the free space on your Mac? You've come to the right place. Data privacy has never been more important, but surprisingly, not everyone realizes that your Mac is not entirely erasing that data when you delete a file.
Did you know? Deleted files are identified as free space, available to be written over with new data. Meaning, they can be fully or partially reconstructed if your Mac ends up in the wrong hands. Unless, of course, you erase your Mac's free space.
What do we mean by erase
On macOS, secure erase means your data is replaced with a random set of zeroes and ones. In this way files are “shredded” digitally. Which app should you use? There is a free Shredder tool that is a part of CleanMyMac X — you may use this simple eraser to do the job.
Let’s take a look at how to erase free space and securely erase the hard drive on your Mac.
Why erase free space on your Mac hard drive?
Here’s a quick look at some top reasons to erase your Mac’s free space:
You’re selling an old Mac or a used hard drive.
You work with top-secret non-disclosure agreements.
Your Mac has become too expensive to repair, and it’s time to recycle.
You want to be sure your deleted data is really gone.
Sometimes emptying your trash just isn’t enough; We need to remove files securely.
If your Mac has an SSD, Apple claims that erasing free space on your Mac’s hard drive is unnecessary because a standard erase makes the recovery of data difficult.
Not everyone wants to take Apple’s word for it. Standard erase doesn’t make me entirely comfortable that my data can’t be recovered. Luckily there are some options if you’d prefer to take your Mac’s deleted data fate into your own hands.
You can both easily and safely wipe the free space on your Mac to prevent future recovery of deleted files and data.
How to find out if you have an HDD or SSD disk:
Click the Apple icon top left and select About This Mac.
Select System Report and scroll down to Storage.
Now, select the drive from the list at the top and look for Medium Type.
Here you'll discover if you have an HDD or SSD.
No matter which drive your Mac has, let’s look at how to erase your Mac’s free space.
Erase your free space
One way to securely erase free space on your Mac hard drive is to use theCleanMyMac X Shredder module. Though the main app is paid, this particular tool is 100% free to use.
As we’ve said this feature can be used free of charge and it erases files along with their digital footprints, making them irretrievable. Removal of this nature takes a little longer than a quick empty of your trash, but it does ensure that all data gets rewritten, leaving no chance of recovery at a later date.
Tip: Be sure to select files carefully for secure removal. This action is irreversible.
How to erase free space on your Mac with CleanMyMac X:
Download the free version of CleanMyMac X - It’s also notarized by Apple.
Launch the app, and select Shredder from the sidebar.
Click on the Select Files button.
Now, browse which files you want to remove and press Open.
Or you can just drag and drop the file to feed it into the Shredder.
I found it helpful that once the process finishes, you get an update on remaining free space, and you can also view a log of the removed items. I also love the fact this is really simple to use, for quick peace of mind.
Erase a drive using Disk Utility
If you’re planning on transferring ownership or your Mac, Apple recommends erasing the entire disk; this protects you from any standard erased files or data being rebuilt or recovered.
Disk Utility can feel like a scary place to be clicking around. This powerful and notoriously tricky to locate feature can securely erase your Mac hard drive, ultimately preparing your Mac for new ownership.
Tip: Don’t forget to backup any important files you want to keep before erasing a disk.
If you’re trying to erase your Mac’s startup disk, you will need to start up from macOS Recovery first. On your computer, the Startup disk is the main hard drive, and your Mac is using it to run macOS, so it would be unlikely you would be able to erase it without following the next steps.
Startup from macOS Recovery
- Turn your Mac on and quickly press down Command (⌘) and R. When you see an Apple logo or spinning globe, release the buttons.
- If prompted to enter a password, this will be the primary admin account password. The macOS utilities screen will appear, select Disk Utility.
- Once open, select View in the top menu and choose Show All Devices. The disk your Mac started up from will be top of the list. In my example, you can see Apple SSD is the startup disk.
- Select the disk that you want to erase, and click Erase at the top.
- Give your device a new name,select a format. (Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.) and finally, choose GUID Partition Map and click Erase.
- When it's finished, quit Disk Utility.
If you're not erasing your Mac's main hard drive, then follow these steps:
- Select the Finder icon from the Dock on your Mac and select Applications.
- Now, scroll down to Utilities and then select Disk Utility. You can now follow the same steps as above from point 5.
Final option: If you only need to free up space
There is a difference between “erase” and “free up” when we talk about disk space. If you only need to free up a few gigabytes removing the junk on your drive, that’s much easier to do.
You have 2 options:
1) Use the Optimized Storage feature (a default macOS feature)
This feature is found under Apple menu > About this Mac > Storage > Manage...
2) Use a dedicated junk “destroyer”
The one we’ve told you about is CleanMyMac X. But the same app has another cool feature, called System Junk, that removes clutter in almost astronomical amounts.
It looks like shown below; note how many categories of junk it identifies:
It's up to you to select which option suits your needs. Whether you want to erase free space on your Mac, by selecting which files to remove with a handy tool like CleanMyMac X or opt for the complete drive erasure treatment, it's always good to know your options.
Thanks for reading. Come back soon for more useful Mac tips.
Summary: Still worry about your insufficient Mac storage? Want to speed up Mac but don't know how? Get the 6 free Mac cleaners to clear disk space, clean junk or duplicate files to free up your Mac.
Many of us know exactly how to clean Windows computer or Android phone, but when it comes to cleaning Mac, few people know about it. Many Apple users think that, there is no need to clean Mac.
However, with more and more junk files occupying your Mac storage, your Mac will slow down and offer a bad performance. You have to rely on some Mac cleaner software to remove all useless data.
Best Free Mac Cleaners
With so many Mac cleaner tools offered on the market, which one you should use? Do you know how to choose a great Mac cleaner? We have tested more than 20 Mac cleaners and select the 6 best ones for you to choose from. You can pick your preferred Free Mac cleaner to speed up your Mac easily and quickly.
No.1 Free Mac cleaner: CCleaner - Free junk file cleaner
CCleaner is one free and top Mac cleaner to delete cookies, search history, temporary files and junk files from Mac. The specific functions are below:
1. Find and remove useless/junk files with the click of a button so your Mac can run faster. Speed up boot times with easy management of Startup items.
2. Clear up your recycle bin, temporary files and folders, broken permissions and others. If you want to remove installed programs, just click one button.
3. Erase your browser search history and cookies so you can browse any Internet confidentially and your identity remains anonymous.
No.2 Free Mac cleaner: Disk Inventory X – Free disk cleaner for Mac
Disk Inventory X is one disk cleaning software and disk usage utility for Mac. With this free Mac cleaner, you can know where your disk space has gone and clean it safely. Just see more about Disk Inventory X.
1. Disk Inventory X shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way.
2. With this Mac cleaner, you can see different files marked with different colors, to help you easily find what you want to delete.
No.3 Free Mac cleaner: AVG Cleaner – Free hidden clutter cleaner
AVG Cleaner is one free Mac cleaner to clean hidden clutter and forgotten duplicates. You can see the detailed information below:
1. Clear more hidden garbage, log, download history and trash bin for freeing up more space on your Mac.
2. Search more duplicate files, including images, music, videos and folders.
3. Created for Mac and easy to use.
4. There is an anti-virus software called AVG AntiVirus for Mac, you can use it to protect Macs on your and your families.
No.4 Free Mac cleaner: OmniDiskSweeper - Free hard drive cleaner
OmniDiskSweeper is one free Mac cleaner to find and delete big files that taking up hard drive space and also it can help you recover lost disk space.
1. OmniDiskSweeper helps you sort every file on your Mac by size and you can identify the biggest file to delete it.
2. After deleting, remaining space and folders are recalculated.
No.5 Free Mac cleaner: Dr. Cleaner – Free memory, disk, system cleaner
Dr. Cleaner is one free Mac cleaning app to offer Memory Optimization, Disk Cleaning and System Monitoring to keep your Mac optimized for the best performance.
1. Smart and accurate selection for duplicates scan and remove on Mac with OS X 10.6.6 or later.
2. Scanned big files and junk files will be deleted easily from your Mac.
3. You can easily view real-time network usage and CPU usage in the Menu bar.
No.6 Free Mac cleaner: Disk Drill
Disk Drill is one very popular free Mac cleaner app. Actually, it is a professional data recovery tool for Mac, which carries some disk cleaning functions. It has the capability to analyze Mac storage space, locate unused, large, and duplicate files and so on. In this way, it enables you to free up your Mac storage effortlessly.
1. Monitor the health of your Mac storage and offer timely alerts.
2. Find and remove duplicate files in multiple locations on Mac.
3. Analyze disk space, locate unused files and space hogs, free up storage.
Professional Mac cleaner recommendation:
With the best 6 Mac cleaner apps above, you can handily remove some junk files and optimize your Mac performance. But some of them only offer trial features. Here you are recommended to directly choose the professional Mac cleaner below:
Mac Cleaner- Scan and delete junk files including cache data and logs, email attachments, unwanted iTunes backup and app localization.
- Delete large and old documents and selectively remove worthless files.
- Clean duplicated files or folders on Mac.
- Uninstall apps and clean associated files safely.
- Monitor Mac system in disk utilization, battery status, memory performance and CPU usage.
- Compatible with iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook (Air/Pro) in the latest macOS Monterey.
Clean Mac
FAQs of Free Mac Cleaner
How do I clean and optimize my Mac?
Download and install Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner. Click Cleaner and you can clean up your Mac by cleaning system junk, iPhoto junk, email junk, similar photos, iTunes junk, trash bin, large & old files and more.
Why is my Mac so slow?
The reason that why is your Mac so slow may includes there is no enough hard drive or RAM on Mac. Or there is too many startup items or icon clutter on desktop. Perhaps your macOS is outdated and you should update it.
Does Catalina slow down your Mac?
No. Catalina won’t slow down an old Mac. You can check to make sure if your Mac is compatible with macOS Catalina.
By now, 6 free Mac cleaners have been shared here. You can choose your preferred Mac cleaner according to your need. Please share it in comment if you have any better Mac cleaner recommendation. Check ere if you want to speed up your slow iPhone.
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December 29, 2020 17:50 / Updated by Louisa White to Mac Cleanup