Secure Empty Trash freezes

Question

Secure Empty Trash freezes

Hello,

Occasionally, Secure Empty Trash fails. Does anyone have an explanation for this? And, when the trash application froze I had to press the power button so that the computer would be shut down with force. So if I do that, the files in the trash are gone when I reboot. But since the trash froze while being emptied the data was not completely erased, was it? What actually happened to these files then?

Thank you,

Jerome

G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 1 GB SDRAM 450 MHz AGP Graphics

Posted on Dec 22, 2007 4:22 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 25, 2007 3:28 PM in response to Jerome Simons

It is in fact a known bug in Leopard. Rest assured that the files were completely erased.

You can get around the problem by turning off "Empty Trash Securely" in Finder Prefs.

Also, you should not have to restart. Try doing a Force Quit/Restart on the Finder. That should get you going again.

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Answer 2

Dec 26, 2007 3:27 PM in response to George Thomas

Thank you very much! I greatly appreciate it. Is there a way to report this to Apple.

Thanks,

Jerome

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Answer 3

Dec 26, 2007 4:18 PM in response to Jerome Simons

They are aware of it; now we must be patient while they get around to fixing it.

Hopefully in the next update.

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Answer 4

Jan 22, 2008 1:19 AM in response to George Thomas

I am also having a problem with my secure empty trash freezing. I am trying to get old data off of an external hard drive and it doesn't seem to be capable of doing it. Would a regular "empty trash" be just as good?

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Answer 5

Jimyyz

Level 1

101 points

Feb 28, 2008 10:04 PM in response to Jerome Simons

By chance are you trying to delete encrypted .dmg files?

My system was hanging while doing a secure empty trash. After removing an encrypted .dmg file that i was also trying to erase the other files deleted fine.

you might also want to check if there is a firmware update for your external hard drive if you are trying to erase files from that.

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Answer 6

Elllen

Level 1

8 points

Feb 28, 2008 10:36 PM in response to George Thomas

Look to see if there are any tiny icons of locks superimposed on any of the icons for the files in the trashbin. If there are, take the files out & then try secure erase again. If that works, unlock the files which you removed from the trashbin and then erase them again. When you try secure unerase next time, they should be erased. This worked for me a few days ago. Good luck!

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