files still occupying space after transfer to external drive

[chris7777]

I tried transfering some files from my macbook pro to an external drive using the drop and drag/command last night. I also dragged a few things to the trash. I thought everything had went well, until I got the message my startup disk was almost full. I think I forgot to empty the trash before ejecting the external drive.

From what I can tell My macbook harddrive is still accounting for all of the hard drive space used from the files I transfered, as well as the ones I deleted.

I transfered like 18 to 19 gigs, and mayby deleted a gig if that.

any idea on how I can get my hard drive to recognize its not full?

 

[GGJstudios]

When you drag a file from one drive to another, it copies the file; it doesn't move it. Therefore, the files you drag and drop now exist on both drives. If you move files to the Trash, whether from your internal or external drive, the space is not reclaimed until you empty your Trash while the drive is still connected. Reconnect any drives and empty the Trash.

 

[chris7777]

I reconnected the drives and I still cant find the old files. I did the command + drag so I thought I just moved the files, especially since Ive done it before, and the files have not reappeared on my laptop even after reconnecting the external drive, I had to transfer more files to free up my hard drive, but the files I originally moved are no where to be founf except on the external drive and the space they took up.