The Trash

2.6. The Trash No single element of the Macintosh interface is as recognizable or famous as the Trash can, which now appears at the end of the Dock.
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The Trash2.6. The TrashNo single element of the Macintosh interface is as recognizable or famous as the Trashcan, which now appears at the end of the Dock.You can discard almost any icon by dragging it onto the Trash icon (actually awastebasket, not a trash can, but lets not quibble). When the tip of your arrow cursortouches the Trash icon, the little wastebasket turns black. When you release the mouse,youre well on your way to discarding whatever it was you dragged. As a convenience,Mac OS X even replaces the empty-wastebasket icon with a wastebasket-filled-withcrumpled-up-papers icon, to let you know theres something in there.Tip: Learn the keyboard alternative to dragging something to the Trash: Highlight theicon, and then press -Delete. This technique is not only far faster than dragging, butrequires far less precision, especially if you have a large screen. Mac OS X does all theTrash-targeting for you.2.6.1. Rescuing Files and Folders from the TrashFile and folder icons sit in the Trash forever—or until you choose Finder EmptyTrash, whichever comes first.If you havent yet emptied the Trash, you can open its window by clicking thewastebasket icon once. Now you can review its contents: icons that youve placed on thewaiting list for extinction. If you change your mind, you can rescue any of these items bydragging them out of the Trash window.Tip: If dragging something to the Trash was the last thing you did, you can press -Z—the keyboard shortcut of the Edit Undo command. This not only removes it fromthe Trash, but also returns it to the folder from which it came. This trick works even if theTrash window isnt open.2.6.2. Emptying the Trash I: Quick and EasyIf youre confident that the items in the Trash window are worth deleting, use any of thesethree options: • Choose Finder Empty Trash. • Press Shift- -Delete. Or, if youd just as soon not bother with the Are you sure? message, throw the Option key in there, too. • Control-click the wastebasket icon (or right-click it, or just click it and hold the mouse button down for a moment); choose Empty Trash from the shortcut menu.Tip: This last method has two advantages. First, the Mac doesnt bother asking Are yousure? (If youre clicking right on the Trash and choosing Empty Trash from the pop-upmenu, its pretty darned obvious you are sure.) Second, this method nukes any lockedfiles without making you unlock them first.If you use either of the first two methods, the Macintosh asks you to confirm yourdecision. Click OK. (Figure 2-11 shows both this message and the secret for turning it offforever.)Either way, Mac OS X now deletes those files from your hard drive.2.6.3. Emptying the Trash II: Secure and ForeverWhen you empty the Trash as described above, each Trashed icon sure looks like itdisappears. The truth is, though, that the data in each file is still on the hard drive. Yes,the space occupied by the dearly departed is now marked with an internal This spaceavailable message, and in time, new files that you save may overwrite that spot. But inthe meantime, some future eBay buyer of your Mac—or, more imminently, a savvyfamily member or office mate—could use a program like Norton Utilities to resurrectthose deleted files. (In more dire cases, companies like DriveSavers.com can usesophisticated clean-room techniques to recover crucial information—for several hundreddollars, of course.)That notion doesnt sit well with certain groups, like government agencies, internationalspies, and the paranoid. As far as theyre concerned, deleting a file should really , reallydelete it, irrevocably, irretrievably, and forever.Mac OS X has a command, therefore, called Secure Empty Trash. When you choose thiscommand from the Finder menu, the Mac doesnt just obliterate the parking spacesaround the dead file. It actually records new information over the old—random 0s and1s. Pure static gibberish.The process takes longer than the normal Empty Trash command, of course. But when itabsolutely, positively has to be gone from this earth for good (and youre absolutely,positively sure youll never need that file again), Secure Empty Trash is secure indeed.2.6.4. Locked Files: The Next GenerationBy highlighting a file or folder, choosing File Get Info, and turning on the Lockedcheckbox, you protect that file or folder from accidental deletion (see Figure 2-11 atbottom). A little padlock icon appears on the corner of the full-size icon, also shown inFigure 2-11.Figure 2-11. Top: Your last warning. Mac OS X doesnt tell you how many items are in the Trash or how much disk space they take up.If youd rather not be interrupted for confirmation every time you empty the Trash, you can suppress this message permanently. To do that, choose File Preferences, click Advanced, and turn off Show warning before emptying the Trash. Bottom: The Get Info window for a locked file. Locking a file in this way isntmilitary level security by any stretch–any passing evildoer can unlock the file in the same way. But it does trigger an operation cannot be completed warning when you try to put it into the Trash–or indeed when you try to drag it into any other folder–providing at least one layer of protection against mistakes.Mac OS X doesnt even let you put a locked icon into the Trash—or any other folder.You cant put the icon of an open program into the Trash, either.If something thats already in the Trash turns out to be locked, click and hold on the Trashitself. Now, when you choose Empty Trash from its shortcut menu, Mac OS X emptiesthe Trash without warnings, locked files and all.Of course, the other alternative is to unlock whats in the Trash. Fortunately, theres aquick w ...