[eclecticEel]

I never knew that Windows would delete selected trash items - but then why would I ever use that feature? If I want to save files I don’t put them in the trash (I’m kinda the same way about other things as well- like food, clothing, household items). In any event, if you have TM set up then delete away to your heart’s content.

[3Fingas]

Hi, this is my first post on this forum.
I don't know why people think it's funny to tell unsuspecting people to "rm -rf /" their hard drive.
Anyhow, a simple way to get rid of such files is to Open up your terminal
-> application folder
--> utilities
---> terminal
Then, click on your trash can icon.
In the terminal window type "rm" followed by a space.
In your trash can folder, drag the desired file onto the terminal window.
In the terminal window, it should read,
"rm /Users//.Trash/"
Then just hit enter. Files is unlinked, therefore not visible to file system, but the content remains until the space on the hard drive is overwritten.
One way to securely (well, mostly secure) way to delete files from the terminal is to do the following:
cat /dev/null > name_of_file_to_be_deleted.
The above command writes over the file with "0's" making recovery of the original file's contents impossible by normal tools.
This is a good practice to use when deleting personal files. I use it all the time when deleting files containing financial information (tax returns, bank statements, etc.).