Where is the Trash located externally?

Question

Where is the Trash located externally?

I'm trying to recover data from a hard drive that can be read externally but does not boot to the OS. The client said he threw some files in the trash but he knows it hasn't been emptied. i know you used to be able to see it as a hidden file under 10.4 externally but I can't seem to find it within 10.5 or 10.6... This drive in particular is 10.6.5... Any ideas or knowledge of the location?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Jan 10, 2011 5:44 AM

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Answer 1

ajduguid

Level 3

650 points

Jan 10, 2011 5:58 AM in response to Michael Thompson

In Terminal you can see hidden files and folders using

ls -al

Trash, I believe, is usually a hidden folder called .Trash at the root of the drive.

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Answer 2

Jan 10, 2011 6:01 AM in response to Michael Thompson

I tried to figure this out, but I haven't gotten anywhere. I can tell you how you can try. Plug in an external hard drive. Create a file on it, then put it in the trash using the Finder (standard stuff). Then open up a terminal window. Get root access and use a find command to search that hard drive and your boot drive. That should provide the answer you are looking for. I would try doing it on my Mac, but I am late for work now so I don't have time.

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Answer 3

Niel

Level 10

726,905 points

Jan 10, 2011 10:00 AM in response to Michael Thompson

The path is /Volumes/volumename/.Trashes/501/, where volumename is the disk's name and 501 is the numeric ID of the account the files were deleted from. If you don't know what this is, start with 501 and increment the number by 1 each time you hit the wrong folder.

If the disk contains a bootable OS, the Trash may also be located in the .Trash folder of that account's home folder. In any case, use the Go to Folder command in the Finder's Go menu.

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