Comments on: Secure Delete Automator Workflow http://john.whelans.net/archives/670 Stumbling through life Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:00:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: John http://john.whelans.net/archives/670/comment-page-1#comment-22307 John Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:14:20 +0000 http://john.whelans.net/?p=670#comment-22307 Definitely valid arguments Dave - which is why I posted this in the first place. For times when you just want a quick and easy way to remove a few files this finder service really does the job well. Additionally, you can choose (with this finder service) how many passes you want - a single pass, DoD Spec 7 passes, or 32 passes. I know of no EASY way of setting that in Finder for it's securely empty trash. (I, btw, use 7 passes.) Definitely valid arguments Dave – which is why I posted this in the first place. For times when you just want a quick and easy way to remove a few files this finder service really does the job well.

Additionally, you can choose (with this finder service) how many passes you want – a single pass, DoD Spec 7 passes, or 32 passes. I know of no EASY way of setting that in Finder for it’s securely empty trash.

(I, btw, use 7 passes.)

]]> By: David Meade http://john.whelans.net/archives/670/comment-page-1#comment-22303 David Meade Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:53:45 +0000 http://john.whelans.net/?p=670#comment-22303 Securely emptying the trash, as your friend mentioned, is a great feature, but for me I typically am not deleting confidential data (it's usually just downloaded installers, old notes to self, and other non-sensitive data) ... a secure delete / 'wipe' of these sorts of things are usually overkill and not worth the performance hit. Also, my trash usually fills up with LOTS of files before I get around to emptying it. Since my trash usually has LOTS of (non-sensitive) files in it, and since a secure delete takes longer than a normal delete ... I'd usually rather not take the time to securely delete the 3,457 files in my trash when in fact it was only the one file that I really cared to have 'securely deleted'. Using srm (via a finder service) lets you securely delete a group of selected files and still use the faster (and recoverable) "normal delete" for the scores of non-confidential files that may be in your trash. :) (BTW, thanks for the shout out, but it was mostly the all powerful Google that led me to the solution that others had figured out before :) Securely emptying the trash, as your friend mentioned, is a great feature, but for me I typically am not deleting confidential data (it’s usually just downloaded installers, old notes to self, and other non-sensitive data) … a secure delete / ‘wipe’ of these sorts of things are usually overkill and not worth the performance hit.

Also, my trash usually fills up with LOTS of files before I get around to emptying it.

Since my trash usually has LOTS of (non-sensitive) files in it, and since a secure delete takes longer than a normal delete … I’d usually rather not take the time to securely delete the 3,457 files in my trash when in fact it was only the one file that I really cared to have ‘securely deleted’.

Using srm (via a finder service) lets you securely delete a group of selected files and still use the faster (and recoverable) “normal delete” for the scores of non-confidential files that may be in your trash. :)

(BTW, thanks for the shout out, but it was mostly the all powerful Google that led me to the solution that others had figured out before :)

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