Secure erase trash

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Hi, dalton. With "Empty Trash," every item you send to the Trash will be stored in the Trash until you manually empty the Trash. With "Secure Empty Trash," every item you send to the Trash shall be automatically deleted instead of being temporarily stored in the Trash.

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

I'm sorry to correct you Maryanne but what i understand with Secure Empty Trash is that it totally deletes the files stored in your hardisk. What happens when you just use empty trash is that it only deletes ther directory of the file, but not physical file itself, thus the file can or probably can be recovered using some file recovery softwares. In Secure Empty Trash, it deletes the directory and the actual physical file in your hard drive, so it will be deleted forever and you wont be able to recover it since its totally deleted from your hardrive. I hope it sheds a light on this matter.

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Yep, that's more or less it, suavecito. If "Secure Empty Trash" is the setting, then every single item sent to the Trash will be deleted, and it won't be found anymore. If not, every item sent to the Trash will be stored in the Trash until they are manually deleted. Files can be restored back from the Trash manually, too, by dragging them from out of the Trash, if the setting is not on "Secure Empty Trash."

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Actually, Secure Empty Trash is also called Zeroing Out Datas, file in your computer stay there even after deletion or reformatting, it will physically stay there although you already deleted it from your system and is only recoverable using certain software and is not 100% guaranteed. It will stay there unless it has been overwritten by new files, or your hardrives been Zero Out. Now Secure Empty Trash does the same thing as Zeroing Out Datas, it would be forever gone because its actual physical file would been wiped out by doing this option.

Now to answer Dalton's question, no it doesnt have a negative effect unless you want to recover a file that's been mistakably deleted. I suggest if you have a top secret file that you want to get rid off, choose secure empty trash when deleting it.

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

I was basing my replies on your original question, dalton. You were referring to "Empty Trash" and "Secure Empty Trash," not the action "Move to Trash."

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Now I got more confused. Where exactly is the secure empty trash option? I can't seem to find it.

There could be traces of your files still on your hard disk even if you empty the trash. As suavecito mentioned, certain softwares can recover those files if they have not been overwritten yet. Secure empty trash will wipe out all traces of the file and they are permanently deleted and are unrecoverable. Move to trash is just like moving a file to another folder, in this case the folder is called trash. You can manually delete the files from the trash folder one by one or delete everything in it by the empty trash command. Still can't find where secure empty trash is...

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Let me help.
Dalton, when you move a file to the Trash, you actually have not deleted them. That gives you option to put them back to your desktop or any file folder so you can reopen them. If you choose to empty trash, you only delete the directory of the files (if you do this, you will see no file in the trash) but the files deleted can still be recoverable.
If you choose Secure Empty Trash, you completely delete the files in the trash with no possibility of recovery.
For me, I always use secure empty trash as I only put to trash the files of no use for me. For files that I will need pa, I store it in another folder in my desktop.
Tech guys, pls correct me if wrong.

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Bulakbol, the "Secure Empty Trash" is just under the "Empty Trash" in Finder.

dalton, basing from my experience with my Mac, when the last button I clicked is "Secure Empty Trash," sometimes when I next do "Move to Trash" on certain items, they end up in the Trash, but sometimes they just don't appear in the Trash anymore and I can't find them anywhere, and my "Empty Trash" button is disabled, meaning the Trash is already empty. But when I never used the "Secure Empty Trash" option anymore, all items I move to the Trash simply end up right in the Trash, so that's what I have used ever since.

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Just my two cents worth guys. I'm not sure if this is how it's really implemented. But I somehow recall something from my college years. From what I remember, an item cannot really be deleted from the magnetic disk as it is already stored there. You can only mark it as deleted so that the operating system knows that the space allocated to the particular item can be overwritten.

I share your understanding of the item not being deleted when it is moved to the Trash folder.

I also share the same idea then when you use Empty Trash, you can still recover it using a third-party tool. The item is only marked as deleted.

However, with Secure Empty Trash, the deleted item (i.e. the whole space allocated to it on the disk) is first overwritten with 0's, 1's or some other value before it is marked as deleted. In this way, even manual recovery would be impossible.

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

since files aren't permanently erased from the hard drive unless you use Secure Empty Trash, is there another way to permanently delete the files still left on the hard drive (meaning files erased by just clicking on Empty Trash)?

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

would you believe i did not know of this till now. as an aside, if i empty my trash and its not physically deleted, where are the files now so i can secure empty trash them? thanks!

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

You'd notice that once you use either Empty Trash or Secure Empty Trash, both options will then become unavailable.

To securely delete items that have been deleted by Empty Trash and Secure Empty Trash, you can use the Erase Free Space option in Disk Utility.

This does exactly what Secure Empty Trash does.

BTW, just an additional note. Secure Empty Trash and the Erase Free Space option takes a very long time. This is because the space occupied by the deleted item is over written not once, but several times (one site says 8 times). Each of those times a different random string (1's and 0's) is used to overwrite the area. So the larger the file, the longer it takes.

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Aside from secure empty trash, I also use the Onyx to do regular cleaning (including secure delete) and maintenance. It's a very good freeware. MacJanitor is another good option.

 

Re: Secure Erase Trash?

Thanks guys!