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Sunil
03-10-2003, 04:11 AM
Hi everyone i've got a question for all the mac experts out there, I've been using a mac since August last year so I haven't quite figured out all the little tricks yet! My question concerns the use of external storage devices with macs. I understand that every folder in the mac file system has a hidden folder called .Trashes and a hidden file called .DS Store. I've read that the .Trashes folder contains anything that has been sent to the trash from the folder it resides in. This is fine for folders on my hard disk but when I connect a memory stick to the mac, whenever i send something from the memory stick to the trash it doesn't free up any space. This puzzled me for quite some time until I put the memory stick into a windows machine and found the .Trashes folder with everything i had just deleted in it! So my question is, is there any way I can delete things from the memory stick using my mac without sending them to the trash first? Like in windows you can press shift and delete to delete a file straight away without first sending it to the recycle bin. Sorry for the long post but this has been bugging me for a while, any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sunil
parmesian
03-10-2003, 01:44 PM
just empty the trash before you unmount the memory stick. the folder is still there (just like in windoze) but it will be practically empty (<1k).
Sunil
03-10-2003, 06:00 PM
Wow so simple! I never even thought to try it!:p Thanks a lot parmesian!

Sunil
davidbrit2
03-11-2003, 11:16 AM
If you're feeling adventurous, you can do it from the Terminal, too, using the rm command. By the way, visit www.macosx.com sometime. It's a HUGE Mac discussion site, and you should be able to get answers to just about all of your questions.
DavidTO
03-11-2003, 03:58 PM
As far as keyboard shortcuts go, cmd-delete will send the highlighted item(s) to the trash, and cmd-shift-delete will empty the trash. Press enter to confirm.
Sunil
03-12-2003, 08:26 AM
Thanks for all the help guys :) I'll look into the terminal command and definitely check out www.macosx.com. Great tip about the keyboard shortcuts too!

Sunil.