What is the difference between these two, and why does secure empty trash take sooo much longer to empty than normal empty trash?
The data sectors being erased are over-written with zeros to ensure the data is truly gone (as opposed to a normal empty trash where the data is only marked to be overwritten, and could be recovered).
Are the trash files added in time machine? if they are, if you secure empty trash, would that erase them from time machine?
No, deleting files from your system will not delete them from Time Machine. I don't believe Secure Empty Trash makes a difference in this case.Are the trash files added in time machine? if they are, if you secure empty trash, would that erase them from time machine?
Empty Trash just tells the OS that these files can be written over at a later date. They aren't actually deleted (read overwritten) until the OS needs to put something there.
Secure Empty Trash actually deletes the file right there by overwriting it with 0's, I believe. And in Disk Utility you can overwrite it 1, 7, or 35 times I believe for security purposes.
This might just be a very simple way of looking at it. Someone please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.
Empty Trash just tells the OS that these files can be written over at a later date. They aren't actually deleted (read overwritten) until the OS needs to put something there.
Secure Empty Trash actually deletes the file right there by overwriting it with 0's, I believe. And in Disk Utility you can overwrite it 1, 7, or 35 times I believe for security purposes.
This might just be a very simple way of looking at it. Someone please feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.
So, would that mean that all those files are still taking up space on my hard drive?
Technically the data is still there, but it is still available space (i.e. it is free to be overwritten).So, would that mean that all those files are still taking up space on my hard drive?
Technically the data is still there, but it is still available space (i.e. it is free to be overwritten).
It's no different with Secure Empty trash, but instead of the original data it's random data.
You would have to download a third party app (usually for a fee), or hire a professional data recovery agency.Ok, thanks. I'm just curious though, how could you recover those files that you emptied from the trash?(not secure empty)