How to delete a file?

When you delete a file by moving it to the trash, the space is not freed up - the file is simply marked by moving it to the trash and the file name entry marked as well so it doesn't show up on the drive. However, the file itself has not been changed. The only way to free up the space is to empty the trash. If you are keeping stuff in the trash for a month, you might need to re-consider use of the trash. Pretty much the same thing happens on windows.

 

By default, when you drag a file from one drive to another, it copies, rather than moves it, since that's usually what people want to do.

Moving to the trash, rather than deleting, allows you to change your mind and recover something you accidentally trashed.

If you want it gone, you just have to empty the trash.

 

It is mildly annoying that you cannot selectively delete from the trash as you can in the recycle bin in Windows.

However if you're not afraid of the command prompt you can always open up a terminal window and navigate to /Volumes/Flash Drive and use the rm command to instantly and permanently delete any file much more quickly. Be careful though since there's no confirmation or second guessing once rm is used.

 

Trash management in Windows is much better than in Mac OS. Besides you told, there is the "Restore from trash" functionality missing.

thistle

 

I guess "trash" means just that... why not create a folder for "pending trash" and just move your files there until you're really ready to delete them?

 

Well, one way to do it is to make sure your flash drive is formatted as FAT32 (this is the default for most flash drives anyway). When I delete a file from my flash drive, I am told it will be deleted immediately.

The other option, as someone already pointed out, is to use the command prompt. For the instructions below, substitute <drive name> with the name of your flash drive, and <file name> with the name of the file you want to delete. Do not include the brackets.

Fire up terminal (located in Applications/Utilities).

For single files:
rm /Volumes/<drive name>/<file name>

For empty folders:
rmdir /Volumes/<drive name>/<folder name>

For not empty folders (will delete all contents)
rm -Rf /Volumes/<drive name>/<folder name>

Be VERY careful with the last one - make sure you type in the exact name of the folder you want to delete, and only that name. A typo with that command can ruin your life.

 

I never understood why you would put something into the Trash that you wanted to keep around. I mean, if I have some leftover pizza that I might want to eat, I put it in the fridge, not my trash can. If I put it in the can, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to decide that I'm still hungry for it.

Yeah, I do miss the Put Away command.

 

That's what we need! A right-click menu item that says "Move to Fridge"