I use a programme to get rid of data I want to wipe off the hard disk of my home PC, but I also use a Mac and wonder if there are any similar programmes to clean up stuff on one. I expect I'll be disposing of mine sometime and don't want to leave personal files or junk from the internet on it. Thanks for any help.

Which OS are you using? OS 10.3 has a 'data shredder' built-in.

That is useful to know--I'm only on OS 9, sadly, but I'd like to get something more up to date. I suppose the programme can't be obtained separately?

Hehe, I am still on OS 8.6 (rev B iMac). For secure deletion I have always used the freeware PGP. Version 7 is available here (http://www.pgpi.org/cgi/download.cgi?filename=PGPfreeware703.sit.bin) for download.

Its got a lot of stuff you don't need however, as it is actually a security/encryption suite. Overkill probably.... but you can even actionscript pgp to do a periodical wipe of free space on your drive to prevent any old deleted files ever being retrievable.

Of course, sometimes it is useful not to do this, for example when you want to undelete files.

Thank you! Much appreciated! I'll try it.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

let us know how you get on

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 8.0.3

iQA/AwUBQUGGvtp2WYRdD1pVEQKg3gCgwxg7bqcM8uIXu2/8Z8yRE3ANFDIAniEe
rpMNZR0OxVxCjkeKasaBUjFU
=gqlw
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

I have got a new mac, I've upgraded from mac 8.5 to 10.3.
Is the data shredder the same as secure empty trash?

Yes it is. When you use secure empty trash it overwrites the deleted data with random data. It's a nice feature to have built-in.