Moving files via drag & drop

Question

Moving files via drag & drop

Hello all,

I am curious, when I move a file,from say finder, does the system make another copy of the file or another reference to the file?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 17, 2011 9:57 AM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

Level 10

361,753 points

Jan 17, 2011 10:10 AM in response to MatthewMcConchie

When you drag and drop a file from one location to another on the same volume the file is "moved." If you drag and drop a file from one volume to another volume then the file is "copied."

Moving a file is essentially the same as: a. copy file to destination; b. delete file from source. Copying a file does not delete the source file. In no circumstance does this process involve aliases.

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Answer 2

ajduguid

Level 3

650 points

Jan 17, 2011 10:23 AM in response to Kappy

To expand on what Kappy said I'm pretty sure all the major OSes have the same behaviour and also allow key modifiers.

When dragging a file holding down the alt key forces a copy command, cmd forces a move and alt + cmd an alias. Windows has something similar but I don't know the exact keys off the top of my head.

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