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Is Emptying Trash Bin Permanent?

Emptying trash in El Capitan is rapid but is it permanent? In Yosemite one had the option of simply emptying the bib or emptying in irreversibly to prevent third party recovery.

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Alan

Comments: 3 Responses to “Is Emptying Trash Bin Permanent?”

    8 years ago

    The reason the secure empty trash option was removed is that almost all Macs now come with SSDs and have for a while. Overwriting files with zeroes when you empty the trash is easy to do on HDDs, but not SSDs. There is a lot of technical stuff behind why it isn't there anymore that I won't get into.
    So what is your reason for wanting a secure erase over the standard? If it is a real concern for you (you work for a government or corp with secrets to protect) then you probably have an IT department that can advise you. Or, you can simply use FileVault on your Mac with secures your undeleted files as well.
    Otherwise, you have to decide whether you want to learn some higher level techniques with the command line and such.
    Just using Empty Trash is fine for most users. Or do you have some specific concern.

    Harry
    8 years ago

    Worried about trash still taking up storage space when emptied Gary

    8 years ago

    Harry: When you empty the files you just deleted do not take up any space on your drive.

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