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Secure empty trash

M

mac888

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 18, 2014
2
0
I have searched and can't find an answer for this.

I will have very few files in the trash and when I secure empty trash it says it is deleting hundreds of files.

Example: I recently put 3 empty folders in the trash, emptied it, and it said it was deleting 669 files and took like 10 minutes.

Is this normal? What's going on?

Thanks!
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
mac888 said:
I have searched and can't find an answer for this.

I will have very few files in the trash and when I secure empty trash it says it is deleting hundreds of files.

Example: I recently put 3 empty folders in the trash, emptied it, and it said it was deleting 669 files and took like 10 minutes.

Is this normal? What's going on?
Click to expand...
The folders may not have been empty, but may have contained hidden files. It doesn't sound unusual.
 
M

mac888

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 18, 2014
2
0
thanks

This happens every time I delete anything though. To test it, I just put a saved, blank word document in there and emptied trash. There was only one file and somehow it said 3 things were deleted. Hidden files?
 
Gav2k

Gav2k

macrumors G3
Jul 24, 2009
9,216
1,608
If I remember correctly the secure empty function does a 7 pass erase so each item would be multiplied by 7 and zero's out so it could be a that the finder erase windows is doing that calculation.
 
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