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Sudo command to empty tash for Mac Book Pro

S

Slothzilla

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2015
9
0
I had almost 44,000 files to delete from my macbook and went to secure empty my trash. However the secure empty was taking forever and would stop every time I left my laptop for more than 10 minutes. I looked up a way to do it with sudo commands and finished the project in under a minute. My main concern now is did the sudo command secure delete the programs and free up space on my hard drive or did it just move them from view?

The command line was:
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/
 
Slothzilla said:
I had almost 44,000 files to delete from my macbook and went to secure empty my trash. However the secure empty was taking forever and would stop every time I left my laptop for more than 10 minutes. I looked up a way to do it with sudo commands and finished the project in under a minute. My main concern now is did the sudo command secure delete the programs and free up space on my hard drive or did it just move them from view?

The command line was:
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/
Click to expand...

rm is the same as empty trash (non-secure version).

to secure delete from the command line use srm. You can pass it options that will make faster than Finder's secure delete, such as -s which calls for a one pass overwrite, vs the 7 pass (i think) Finder will do.
 
Ganesha said:
rm is the same as empty trash (non-secure version).

to secure delete from the command line use srm. You can pass it options that will make faster than Finder's secure delete, such as -s which calls for a one pass overwrite, vs the 7 pass (i think) Finder will do.
Click to expand...
Is there a way to undo or redo what I did, like I already deleted the stuff from my recycle bin so is it to late. Is there a way to delete the files from like a sub directory or hidden folders on my computer?
 
Slothzilla said:
Is there a way to undo or redo what I did, like I already deleted the stuff from my recycle bin so is it to late. Is there a way to delete the files from like a sub directory or hidden folders on my computer?
Click to expand...

rm -rf /path/to/file will delete the file. You really don't need the -rf though, -rf is recursive force and will only be needed if rm doesn't work.
 
lowendlinux said:
rm -rf /path/to/file will delete the file. You really don't need the -rf though, -rf is recursive force and will only be needed if rm doesn't work.
Click to expand...

my computer is still running slow, how would you recommend speeding it up besides buying new ram.
 
Slothzilla said:
my computer is still running slow, how would you recommend speeding it up besides buying new ram.
Click to expand...

Try this. Create a new partition on the hard drive and install Yosemite to the new partition. Boot to the new partition, don't install anything else. How does the system run, is it still slow? If it is not then you probably need to do a clean install on your hard drive.

When you are done boot back to the other partiton and delete the partition you created.
 
Slothzilla said:
Is there a way to undo or redo what I did, like I already deleted the stuff from my recycle bin so is it to late. Is there a way to delete the files from like a sub directory or hidden folders on my computer?
Click to expand...

If you wish to fully delete data which you've already emptied from your trash in a "non-secure" manner (such as by using the Terminal command you mentioned in your first post), use Disk Utility's "Erase Free Space" feature.
 
OP:

Tell us what year your MacBook is
What OS you are using
Whether the MacBook has a platter-based hard drive or an SSD....
 
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