DeaninSWFL

Q: secure empty removed from OS 10.11?

Within Finder there were two "Empty Trash" options available in prior versions.  Regular that simply removed the directory reference and Secure that overwrote the disk area.  Was Secure removed from OS 10.11 or relocated?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Other OS, OS 10.11

Posted on Oct 6, 2015 5:31 AM

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Q: secure empty removed from OS 10.11?

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  • by Phil-CB,Helpful

    Phil-CB Phil-CB Oct 6, 2015 6:27 AM in response to DeaninSWFL
    Level 1 (115 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 6, 2015 6:27 AM in response to DeaninSWFL

    Indeed, I cannot locate such an option anymore.

    If you miss that one that much, use Terminal instead, using srm command:

     

    Secure Empty Trash = sudo srm -rf ~/.Trash/*

  • by DeaninSWFL,

    DeaninSWFL DeaninSWFL Oct 6, 2015 6:29 AM in response to Phil-CB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2015 6:29 AM in response to Phil-CB

    Thank you!  So I wasn't going blind, nor did I see it mentioned (might have missed the comment) in the release notes.

  • by BobHarris,Helpful

    BobHarris BobHarris Oct 6, 2015 7:30 AM in response to DeaninSWFL
    Level 6 (19,405 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2015 7:30 AM in response to DeaninSWFL

    Secure Empty Trash = sudo srm -rf ~/.Trash/*

    this will do what is desired if and only if you have a rotational hard disk.  If you have an SSD, it will not really erase the storage, and will increase the SSD wear needlessly.

     

    If you have an SSD and are concerned about the security of your deleted files, then use FileVault to encrypt your storage.  Then when a file is deleted it is just a bunch of random bits

  • by DeaninSWFL,

    DeaninSWFL DeaninSWFL Oct 6, 2015 7:31 AM in response to BobHarris
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2015 7:31 AM in response to BobHarris

    Thank you.  I do have an older (early 2011) with a rotational drive and not SSD.  But that is good information.

  • by VikingOSX,

    VikingOSX VikingOSX Oct 6, 2015 11:26 AM in response to DeaninSWFL
    Level 7 (20,819 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2015 11:26 AM in response to DeaninSWFL

    Beyond the obvious, Apple has deliberately removed Secure Empty Trash from El Capitan. This was mentioned by them in a recent Security update, because the secure part of that empty wasn't working as expected. The pointers to srm (1) are the alternative. If one omits the simple (-s), or medium (-m) flags, it will by default perform a 35-pass Gutmann Algorithm on your requested files.

  • by MrHoffman,

    MrHoffman MrHoffman Oct 6, 2015 2:07 PM in response to DeaninSWFL
    Level 6 (15,627 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 6, 2015 2:07 PM in response to DeaninSWFL

    DeaninSWFL wrote:

     

    Thank you.  I do have an older (early 2011) with a rotational drive and not SSD.  But that is good information.

     

    Hard disk drive data will not always be reliably removed, either.

     

    Disk sectors that were replaced due to errors can still contain readable data.

     

    Encrypt your disk.