What are the implications and consequences of executing "kill -9 writeconfig" from the console?

[wel51x]

I am trying to delete an account and checked the "Erase home folder securely" option.

I now notice the process writeconfig is running about 100% CPU, and has been so for some 12 hours now. (I also notice a process launchd has been gradually creeping up in disk write activity).


Anybody know if killing either (or both) will crap out my machine if I do it in the middle of deleting an account.


Thanks; any insight/advice is appreciated.


MacBook Air 13-inch, mid-2011, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 256GB SSD, 4GB RAM

 

[wel51x]

In reading further it looks like killing launchd is a really bad idea as it's one of the fundamental OS X processes.

But I'm still curious as to writeconfig.

 

[motrek]

In reading further it looks like killing launchd is a really bad idea as it's one of the fundamental OS X processes.

But I'm still curious as to writeconfig.

Oof, bummer, not sure what I would do in your situation.

But, if anybody else finds this thread and wants some advice: I would be reluctant to do a "secure erase" on a computer with an SSD.

The way SSDs work, you aren't really guaranteed to securely erase anything if you do that. But it will put extra wear on the drive.

IMO a better way to securely erase the free space on an SSD is to find a big file (rip of a DVD?) and duplicate it until the drive is essentially full. Then delete all the duplicates. That should pretty effectively erase whatever was on the drive previously.