After deleting files from external sources, free space not reclaimed.

[troy14]

Hi everyone,

wasn't entirely sure where to put this but have a small issue.

on my mac mini, i am using a few drives (from USB flash drives to 3/4tb external) formatted NTFS. when I delete files "move to trash".. the files will delete but when i right click -> get info, the space is still taken up and not free, even though the files are gone.

normally I just go through disk utility and reformat them, but when my larger external drives, this is not possible.

is there something I am doing wrong?

 

[rainking]

Hi everyone,

wasn't entirely sure where to put this but have a small issue.

on my mac mini, i am using a few drives (from USB flash drives to 3/4tb external) formatted NTFS. when I delete files "move to trash".. the files will delete but when i right click -> get info, the space is still taken up and not free, even though the files are gone.

normally I just go through disk utility and reformat them, but when my larger external drives, this is not possible.

is there something I am doing wrong?

Empty the trash.

 

[old-wiz]

moving to trash does not release the space - it just marks the file deleted.
You have to empty the trash before space is deleted.

If you move to trash on external then eject the external, the trash icon on the Mac shows "empty", but the space has not been released. When you plug the external back into the mac the trash icon shows "something in trash".