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How long does it take for the trash to delete files?

C

cal03003

macrumors newbie
Original poster
OK... so I've been cleaning up my computer and creating folders with files and photos and music and EVERYTHING that i've had since i was in high school. i usually leave all these on my desktop in ONE folder. I don't know WHAT the HELL i was thinking but i accidentally deleted it and it's kind of like second nature to me to just EMPTY the trash RIGHT AWAY after deleting something. Once my eyes and brain got into sync and saw what was going on and pushed CANCEL! i was able to bring everything back from the trash to my desktop. BUT i don't know whether SOME of those files actually made it through deletion before i cancelled. i remember seeing something that said preparing to delete files or something but i don't remember if it actually deleted something. and the last back up i ran was 3 days ago. there's been A LOT of changes since then. and i downloaded data rescuer or whatever and it just gave me a HUGE list of files that were deleted that i WANTED to delete... and it doesn't even SPECIFY WHEN they were deleted (LAME PROGRAM) i don't want to have to go through sorting through files again.. so basically... is it possible that 150 Gigs of photos, mp3s, and videos, went through a "preparation" phase before getting emptied in the trash??
or does anyone know of a program that will let me know WHEN files got deleted from the trash.. THANKS GUYS!!
 
If you detete your trash in the normal way it doesn't delete the files anyway, it only deletes the files addresses in the hard disc directory. As long as you see the file on the finder it's still there.
 
When you delete files from the trash, the files themselves are not deleted immediately (unless you did a secure delete), but the sectors on which they are stored are set back to 'writable' in the database the file system uses to keep track of file locations.

This means that ANY disk write operation can now over-write those sectors. There is no specific time that the files will last - it depends on how many write operations your HD performs (and it's writing cache/swapfile data to the drive as you read this) and, to a degree, sheer luck. You will have already lost some of it if you are continuing to use your computer.

Therefore the faster you recover what data you can, the more of it you're likely to rescue. If you continue to use the computer in the normal way, what's left of those files will disappear - therefore run your data recovery app and undelete what you can NOW - not in 5 minutes, not after 'just checking my email' not after 'one more web site'. Every single operation your computer carries out reduces the chances of recovering any of your data.

Once you've recovered whatever is left, start taking regular backups of your data - it's the only sensible approach.
 
totally understand that

mr. purple, thanks for the quick reply. but i totally understand that it doesn't DELETE or WRITE over the file right away. just to clarify a little bit. these are MANY MANY files. i wish i even KNEW how many and which files were in EACH folder. i guess my question to you would be how long it took to take to delete ALL the addresses? what does the "preparing to delete files actually mean"?
thanks!
 
Why are you CAPITALISING random WORDS like this? 😕

As for your QUESTION, my experience SHOWS that files do not get DELETED during the "preparing" STAGE. So if you CANCELLED it before then, you are fine.

To answer the other HALF of your question, I dont believe there IS a way to see the date/time when files ARE deleted, because as a previous poster has stated, the system merely marks those AREAS of the hard drive as FREE. It does not record at what time this OCCURS.
 
If you're using 10.5 & Time Machine, just open that folder for the day (or an hour) before you trashed everything & restore it. Easy peasy.
 
Thanks Splashtech!!!

HEY MAN! ALL THESE CAPS ARE FOR YOU BUDDY! I TOTALLY APPRECIATE THE HELP. I CAN FINALLY SLEEP!! I WAS FREAKING OUT ALL NIGHT ABOUT THIS! HAHAHA OK I'll stop capitalizing words... I didn't think it was that annoying to people!
 
splashtech said:
Why are you CAPITALISING random WORDS like this? 😕

As for your QUESTION, my experience SHOWS that files do not get DELETED during the "preparing" STAGE. So if you CANCELLED it before then, you are fine.

To answer the other HALF of your question, I dont believe there IS a way to see the date/time when files ARE deleted, because as a previous poster has stated, the system merely marks those AREAS of the hard drive as FREE. It does not record at what time this OCCURS.
Click to expand...

HEY MAN! ALL THESE CAPS ARE FOR YOU BUDDY! I TOTALLY APPRECIATE THE HELP. I CAN FINALLY SLEEP!! I WAS FREAKING OUT ALL NIGHT ABOUT THIS! HAHAHA OK I'll stop capitalizing words... I didn't think it was that annoying to people!
 
If you find out, that some files were deleted, you should know, that DataRescueII doesn't recover movie files (yet)
 
wow...

cal03003 said:
HEY MAN! ALL THESE CAPS ARE FOR YOU BUDDY! I TOTALLY APPRECIATE THE HELP. I CAN FINALLY SLEEP!! I WAS FREAKING OUT ALL NIGHT ABOUT THIS! HAHAHA OK I'll stop capitalizing words... I didn't think it was that annoying to people!
Click to expand...

Hey, good plan, be rude in a post while at the same time pleading for help.
 
Or, in future, always keep a week's worth of trash

before you carry it to the curb !
Like we do with the household trash. I've dug (cursing) through both kinds of trash. It's a useful place. Use it !
😎
 
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