{"id":33974,"date":"2021-06-15T17:00:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=33974"},"modified":"2021-06-15T17:00:52","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T17:00:52","slug":"wipe-files-free-space-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2021\/06\/wipe-files-free-space-ubuntu\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Wipe Files \/ Free Space to Protect Against Recovering in Ubuntu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/gnome-icon250.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-33105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/gnome-icon250.png 250w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/gnome-icon250-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This simple tutorial shows beginners how to easily wipe files, folder, and\/or free disk space to protect your files from recovering in Ubuntu.<\/p>\n<p>As you may know, any deleted files can be easily restored from the trash can. Even after you emptied the trash, files can still be recovered. So to prevent information leakage and protect privacy, you have to &#8216;wipe&#8217; or &#8216;shred&#8217; files.<\/p>\n<p>1.) Firstly, open terminal either from system app launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/launch-terminal.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/launch-terminal.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"458\" height=\"256\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7926\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/launch-terminal.jpg 458w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/launch-terminal-450x252.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 458px) 100vw, 458px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>2.) When terminal opens, run command to install <code>nautilus-wipe<\/code>:<\/p>\n<pre style=\"border:none;\">sudo apt install nautilus-wipe<\/pre>\n<p>The package adds ability to wipe files, folders, and free disk space via context menu.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-600x256.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"256\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-33976\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-600x256.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-300x128.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe.jpg 765w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>3.) Finally restart Nautilus file browser via command to apply change:<\/p>\n<pre style=\"border:none;\">nautilus -q<\/pre>\n<p>After that, you can right-click on any file or folder to &#8216;wipe&#8217; or &#8216;wipe available disk space&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-options.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-options-600x302.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"302\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-33975\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-options-600x302.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-options-300x151.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-options-768x387.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/nautilus-wipe-options.jpg 1098w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>NOTE &#8216;wipe available disk space&#8217; will overwrite the free space in your system disk, so your data will not recoverable. And the process can take quite a few minutes slowing down your system. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/wipe-disk-space.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/wipe-disk-space-600x287.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"287\" class=\"size-large wp-image-33977\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/wipe-disk-space-600x287.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/wipe-disk-space-300x144.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/wipe-disk-space.jpg 647w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In addition to protect your privacy, you can use BleachBit to clear caches. As well, the tool offers options to shred files, folders, and wipe free space.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bleachbit410.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bleachbit410.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"367\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-32707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bleachbit410.png 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bleachbit410-450x275.png 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This simple tutorial shows beginners how to easily wipe files, folder, and\/or free disk space to protect your files from recovering in Ubuntu. As you may know, any deleted files can be easily restored from the trash can. Even after you emptied the trash, files can still be recovered. So to prevent information leakage and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2039],"class_list":["post-33974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-security"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}