How does the Trash can on your Mac work? Well, it’s where you put files, folders, or apps you don’t need any longer, right?
And, just like at home, every now and then you empty the Mac’s Trash can by deleting what’s inside. That simple process comes with a few problems. First, the Mac doesn’t actually delete the files in the Trash can. Second, there’s no undo feature.
Many Mac apps have a feature called undo. It’s not magic, of course. All the Mac is doing is remembering what you did and giving you an option to undo, or go backwards in the workflow.
What gets cut can be found. What gets deleted can be found and reinserted. Anything involving undo is probably a good thing.
So, why isn’t there an undo feature in the Mac’s Trash? The reality of deleting files in the Trash is that they’re not really deleted in the first place.
All OS X does is turn of a little flag in the file which makes it appear as if it’s deleted. The space where the file resides can be used to save other files, which may or may not delete the original.
Click on the Finder’s menu and select Secure Empty Trash… and OS X will overwrite the file making it nearly impossible to retrieve. But OS X is still missing that all important undo feature found in TrashMagic.
When you use Secure Empty Trash… everything in the Trash can is pretty much gone forever. TrashMagic, gives you trash options you never thought possible. What you get is a smart Trash can.
What TrashMagic does isn’t magic, of course, but it acts like magic. Instead of absolutely positively deleting everything in the Trash can, TrashMagic copies it and hides, then deletes the Trash.
If you need a file you thought was deleted when the Trash was emptied, open TrashMagic and Voila! The files are found.
TrashMagic can be set to empty the Trash automatically while still making backups. From time to time you can rummage through TrashMagic’s storehouse of trashed files to see if there’s anything you need, and, if so, it’s a simple drag and drop back to the Finder.
Why not use Time Machine instead? That’s a good question. I use both. Time Machine keeps a backup of every file, and every changed file, including files you may have deleted. But you have to hunt for them, whereas TrashMagic keeps them in a secure location.
Since I thought one of the purposes of deleting files was to free up space on the hard disk, it seems counter productive to keep all those files, especially with the smaller ssd in use today.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I keep nearly everything, use Time Machine and SuperDuper and use Trash judiciously.