Ghost Files on Thumb Drives??

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Level 1

37 points

Ghost Files on Thumb Drives??

So whenever I delete a file off my thumb drive while using my mac, for some reason, it shows up as having been deleted, but I don't regain memory space. When I bring my thumb drive to a PC, it shows all these files as still being on the thumb drive.

1. What is Apple's reasoning in doing this? Does it serve some higher purpose?

2. Does anyone know of some freeware or something that will allow me to completely remove a file from the thumb drive without having to bring it to a PC?

Much obliged,
Kristopher

MacBook Pro, 2009, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Mar 9, 2010 10:38 AM

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Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Mar 9, 2010 11:00 AM in response to tookyfes

When you put a file from a flash drive in the trash, it is not deleted... simply moved to the trash on that volume. In order to actually delete it, you must empty the trash, and you must do it while the flash drive is still mounted. If you have ejected it, its trash obviously can't be emptied.

If you are emptying the trash with the flash drive connected and finding that the files are still not being deleted, then there's something wrong, as that is not normal behavior.

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