From MaxFix.com it is a word of caution:

[anthlover]

From MaxFix.com it is a word of caution:

Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.3 (#21): "Secure Empty Trash" can delete in-use files; Ejecting CDs; more

"Secure Empty Trash" can delete in-use files It is worth noting that the "Secure Empty Trash" function in Mac OS X 10.3 (intended to permanently erase files) can delete files that are currently in use.


This will cause differing behavior different applications. For instance, if you are watching a movie in Windows Media Player, and use the "Secure Empty Trash" command to delete the file, the movie will stop playing, and Windows Media Player will unexpectedly quit.

For critical system files, the results could be much worse, and possibly require re-installation of Mac OS X 10.3.

[anthlover]

Sorry at Mervs request I moved this thread to News. I had placed it in System, since it sounded like Alarming issue.

Then again as Rusto asked: And I accidently trashed is comment while moving....

What would a Critical System file being doing in the Trash in the first place?

I do not know. The Blurb from Macfixit.com did not say how it could happen....

[wayneyoung]

I understand, to a certain extent, everyone's concern over this; but really, if something is in the trash, should you really be working on it? And to securely empty the trash when there is something in there you want, well that's just plain silly. I don't throw things away at home unless I really want to get rid of it, and I'm sure not going to run down the street chasing the garbage truck, yelling at them to stop because I didn't really want to throw something away. I guess our dumpster diving culture has come to the computer. OK rant off, sorry.

[anthlover]

The news item made it sound like (Similar to what happened with File Vault) that the mere use of the feature Secure Delete might cause problems.

The news item was nebulous. All the same there was enough issues with Panther that being on Guard is prudent.

Then again I think we would have heard about this during the Beta and certainly in the first few weeks After October 24th.

[Craig R. Arko]

Sad to say, I've conversed with people who would be perfectly capable of doing something like this.

To me, it all raises the question: how idiot-proof can a general purpose OS actually be, and still function at something resembling an acceptable level, and cost something resembling an acceptable price? There's still plenty of people who complain about the 'empty trash' and 'do you really want to shutdown' dialogs, and other things designed to confirm an action.

As they used to preach in engineering school - tradeoff, tradeoff, tradeoff. :D

[dreamscape]

I think if you go around permanently deleting system files, then you deserve whatever you get as a lesson, but IMO.

along the lines of the "empty trash" thing, I am a recent windows switcher and in there there was a shortcut to bypass the trashcan and just delete files (shift + delete). Does OS X have a similar feature for "power users" I guess you could say to bypass the trash can?? I normally don't do this except for very large files or folders as in windows it was much faster to bypass the trashcan and just delete them than to move the item(s) to the trash and then empty the trashcan.