(Secure) empty trash is taking a day and a half

i ran a secure trash empty operation on my 250 GB mid 2009 MBP and this has been going for a day and a half with 34,000 items to delete at this point.
is this normal? did i do something dumb like put it to sleep in the middle of this and then reopen it or is this the way secure empty is supposed to work/
TIA

thanks mende.
i don't know but i am very good at taking out bricks and mortar trash but not so good at taking out virtual trash...
i guess the deal is that this operation is like doing a "writing zero's" level of formatting when formatting a hard disk, which can take quite awhile?
thank you.

Similar Messages

  • "Secure Empty Trash" Didn't Clear Space on HD

    How can I reallly clear the space formerly occupied by BackUp files?
    When I used "Secure Empty Trash" after putting lots of BackUp files in the Trash, there was no change in the amount of available HD space. I have about 10GB of applications and files on a 60GB HD, so there should be about 45 GB of free space, but there's only 4 GB available.
    FWIW, I've Repaired Permissions (only a few were necessary) and Restarted to no avail. I've used "Secure Empty Trash" to remove another file, and it worked just fine!
    So how can I clear the part of my HD that I asssume is written with random 0s and 1s left by "Secure Empty Trash", not real files?

    John:
    Thanks for hanging in there with me! As you knew it would, WhatSize worked.
    It identified the old Backup files (that the Finder didn't) and transferred them to the Trash. I used Secure Empty Trash delete them. This time it worked correctly and I have space for Backups again, thank-you very much!
    If you have any idea why it didn't work the first time, I'd appreciate knowing it. I've never used it before, so I don't know if it has a repuitation for being buggy or otherwise problematic.
    The name "WhatSize" was a little misleading.... I initially thought it would just do what the Finder's View > Show View Options > Calculate all sizes command does. Some of the comments on the Version Tracker site supported that idea, so as the stubborn Dutchman that I am was reluctant to do something that might make matters worse.
    I also never considered the possibility that using Secure Empty Trash (as I had) would convert files into hidden files..... especially since I've never had such an experience in uising standard Empty Trash in 25+ years of Apple II and Mac use.
    As you expected, I have learned that lots of HD space is devoted to hidden files (that once were visible in the "old days", if I'm not mistaken).
    In any case, I very much appreciate your wisdom and willingness to keep replying when I didn't take your suggestion! Thanks!
    Cheers!!
    Dick

  • Secure Empty Trash doesn't work

    Working in Mavericks on an iMac 27. Secure Empty Trash starts but disappears and nothing is deleted. Is it safe to use Erase Free Space in Disk Utility?

    danimal303 wrote:
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    When you delete a file (without Secure Empty Trash), all the data of the file still exists on the file system free list.  It will remain there until the file system reuses the space.  Erase Free Space is a way to address this, after files have been deleted.
    It is only really useful as a once in a while event, such as someone forgot to use Secure Empty Trash for a file with sensitive data.  And Secure Empty Trash is very time consuming, and worse it is if you have an SSD, this wears out the SSD faster.
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  • Why does SECURE EMPTY TRASH take so long (several days)?

    I am using OS 10.3.9. I didn't empty the trash for quite a while, and several days ago clicked SECURE EMPTY TRASH. The emptying process began but has not finished even now! Does it take THAT much longer when one uses SECURE EMPTY TRASH? I see that the little message window for Trash says:
    Item to delete: 114,158 This number hasn't gone down now for several minutes.
    Several times I have stopped the Empty Trash process to shut the computer down or just because I wanted to stop it, but it seem to me that after "Emptying the Trash" has been going on for so long, it ought to be finished by now. I welcome any sunlight you can shed on this. Thank you.
    — Lorna in Southern California

    When you choose to Secure Empty Trash, the system
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    When you have that many files in the Trash, this can
    take quite some time.
    So, unless you have something that is confidential in
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    If my answer helped solve your problem, please
    consider awarding some points. Why
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  • Time for Secure Empty Trash and Free Disk Space

    Hi Forum,
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    S

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  • Hi, Question about secure empty trash. I moved some Time Machine backup files to the trash from an external hard drive. Now I can't secure empty trash. It starts, finds 74,003 files, and does nothing. The external hard drive shows it's empty, but it isn't

    I moved some time machine backup files from an external USB hard drive to the trash. Tried secure empty trash. It counts 74,003 items, then just sits there. The external hard drive window shows it's empty, but the info pane says it only has 50G of memory left. I left the secure empty trash on over night. It did nothing. Ideas?
    Thanks,
    Ron

    Relaunch the Finder, then from the Finder menu bar, select
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    Hi everyone,
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  • Secure Empty Trash vs Empty Trash, Hangs and Advanced Finder Pref.

    I've had my intel-based iMac for a couple of weeks and I've been getting a frequent hanging trash problem that causes me to restart my Mac far too often. Restarting the iMac fixes it but I don't know what the problem is to begin with. It seems to happen when I have over 10MB in the trash and I choose "Secure Empty Trash."
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    Yes it's the same if you choose Secure Empty Trash from the Finder or if you have it selected in the Finder advanced preferences. The thing is electing to Secure Empty the trash may take a lot longer to empty because it does either a 7 pass or 35 pass write over the files and that can take a long time to do for large files.
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  • I clicked on secure empty trash and just lost about 40GB of disk space...

    I had something in my trash that wouldnt delete when I clicked Empty Trash because it said it was in use.
    I looked up on here on noticed people said just to click on Secure Empty Trash when i did that.
    The Secure Empty Trash was starting to freeze up half way so I just clicked on cancel.
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    Try this to find your missing space...
    OmniDiskSweeper...
    http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/

  • Secure emptying trash when getting privilges message

    Hi folks,
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  • Secure Empty Trash & Trash Cache

    Am old Mac addict home user with Apple from day one but not a guru. Still have Apple IIE that runs like a clock. With 17 Macs in between, years ago when G3 would slow down, get sluggish and tired, I discovered that setting trash cache and deleting many thousands of cached files would invigorate the machine and restore it's original speed using Preferences in TechTool Pro V 3.
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    Did you get a response to this? There is no solution listed, but it’s marked Solved.
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