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Stupid Mac Deletion Question

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Pete Incaviglia, Feb 18, 2008.

  1. Pete Incaviglia

    Pete Incaviglia Active Member

    It slays me that Macs can be this simple. So are they?

    Like, once I drag a file or program into the trash and empty trash, they're gone, right?

    For example, I'm converting lots of MP3s to AAC format and then deleting the MP3s by sending them to the trash and emptying trash. They're gone, right? Not taking up room on my computer, right?

    It amazes me it's this simple.
     
  2. Cadet

    Cadet Guest

    Make sure you "empty the trash" ... until you do that, the trash is basically like another file folder.

    Yes, Macs are wonderful. I had to touch a PC running Vista for about five minutes tonight and almost barfed.
     
  3. Diabeetus

    Diabeetus Active Member

    Simple it is, and correct you are, Pete. Welcome to the Mac neighborhood :D
     
  4. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    not sure about the OSX, but with past versions, no.

    the info still clung to your hard drive and could be recovered. when i had a mac, i used norton every month to "wipe" my HD clean.
     
  5. zebracoy

    zebracoy Guest

    Call me a moron all you want - quite a few have already - but why isn't this the same on a PC?

    I mean, if I want to delete something, it should be gone, right? All this talk about "it can be found somewhere" should still apply to a Mac, right?

    Why must computers be so unnecessarily difficult.
     
  6. Cadet

    Cadet Guest

    But Pete, how are you backing up your files, including all that music?
     
  7. StormSurge

    StormSurge Active Member

    I'll have my first Mac in exactly 12 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes and 18 seconds.
     
  8. Pete Incaviglia

    Pete Incaviglia Active Member

    Music and Photos will be saved to disc.

    If you have a better suggestion, I'm all ears.
     
  9. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Not that you're keeping track or anything.
     
  10. MacDaddy

    MacDaddy Active Member

    I believe it still works the same way -- when emptying the trash, the data is still on the hard drive somewhere and stuff can be recovered until it's written over. But to ease Pete's mind, no, the stuff you deleted isn't hiding somewhere taking up space.
     
  11. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    The data is still on the drive, but the OS isn't recognizing it in its file system (on OS X it is usually HSF Journaled...) and the sectors on the drive can be overwritten with new data. Unless you know how to wipe a hard drive completely clean -- and this is really difficult, even for someone who knows what they are doing, the data is still on the drive. It's why lots of people doing illegal things with their computers get busted... They may have erased the kiddie porn, but the forensics guys can still find the traces on the hard drive...

    FYI, Leopard (OS X 10.5x) added a great feature called "Time Machine" that creates automatic backups for you. If you set yourself up with an external drive, it will automatically do the backups, and it makes it much less likely that you delete important files by accident.
     
  12. StormSurge

    StormSurge Active Member

    Nope, not at all. :)
     
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