is it normal for my computer to slow down this much?

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menace3054

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Every time i secure empty trash, my computer slows down to almost a halt. I mean its virutally useless until the trash is done emptying. (sometimes 10-15 mins for large files) I have a dual 1.8 G5 with 2 GB of ram.
 
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It will take longer to secure empty the trash, depending on the size and number of files you are deleting. Because the files are being completely overwritten it may cause slowness in your other apps while the drive is being rewritten.
It should not grind to a halt, but it will definitely slow things down while it is emptying. How large are the files you are deleting? Repairing Permissions may help a bit, as will something like MacJanitor or some other maintenace app.
 
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menace3054

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theyre like 8 gb each.. oh well, i guess ill just plan on goin for a walk next time i need to empty trash, thx for the response.
 
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Kokopelli

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If you are secure deleting 8GB files then yes, the slowdown is reasonable. That is going to be rough on your drive by the way.

It is up to you, but if it is just a "wipe a movie" kind of thing I would not worry about it. *IAA tactics have not included expert drive forensics to this stage and it is highly unlikely that they ever will.
 
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menace3054 said:
is it better to just do normal empty trash?

It is unless you want to wait 15 minutes for it to overwrite the whole thing.
 
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Kokopelli

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The problem with secure delete is that is overwrites the space. This is a whole lot of reads and writes when you are talking that much space.

Secure delete is great if you are removing financial information or things of that nature. That way if your computer gets stolen or sold it would not be recoverable. So I would use secure delete when you delete personal information that is sensitive in nature, but not all the time. You could leave it on and wipe everything with secure delete, but I would argue that it is not necessary, takes longer, and is harder on your drive.
 

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