trash?

[Alan Lacey]

I’m totally new to the Mac world and was wondering what happens to a file when it’s sent to trash.

Normally in Windows I shift/delete which bypasses the recycle bin, but I notice this is not available in the MacOS (10.3.8) in my case.

Does the file remain on it’s original disk but marked for deletion in some way? I’ve been trashing then emptying trash immediately for my big video files, but is there a more efficiant way?

Thanks

Alan (London)

[Curtis Thompson]

hello…

for all intensive purposes, the item is gone once you delete it from the trash (use “secure empty trash” to scramble the file and really really delete it from your drive)…it’s hard to say what the most “efficient” way would be to keep copies of old files, though, as that’s sort of a personal preference thing. i don’t ever put things in the trash that i might want later (even if i don’t empty it) just because i will undoubtedly end up accidently deleting something…

sitruc

[Alan Lacey]

Thanks Curtis,

It’s not that I want an efficient way of keeping files, it’s just that I want a quick easy way of deleting them permanently and not bothering with trash.

[Curtis Thompson]

hello…

ahh yes – my bad. i now realize what that shortcut does on windows (i have xp, too – just don’t use that feature)…sorry about that.

ya – apple has had a long-standing usability tradition of leaving that extra layer of a trash can for your convenience so that you have that safety layer. you can pretty quickly empty your trash if you’re in the finder by hitting shift-apple-backspace (and then disabling the warning dialog via finder preferences -> advanced)…or if you have the 2-button mouse (and if you don’t, get one), you can right click on the trash in the dock and click empty trash…

but sorry – no forced override on the delete… :-/

sitruc