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Deleting files from an external drive in lion 10.7.3

Why when i delete a file from an external drive the file bypass the trash can an gets deleted ?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 4 gigs of ram

Posted on Jun 26, 2012 9:52 AM

33 replies

Jun 27, 2012 10:24 AM in response to macjack

It doesnot have a system on it and it is not a bootable drive . It is a lacie 500 gig quadra attaced to a airport extreme usb port that I used for my media and other files to be shared on my home network wirelessly. My iPhoto librairy and iTunes librairy and other files are on that drive to free up space on my mac book hard drive.

Jun 27, 2012 11:15 AM in response to macjack

So what is the solution . I do not understand what CT is saying ? Is it a problem with my setup or is it just the way an external drive connected to an airport extreme supposed to behave ?

Jun 28, 2012 4:57 AM in response to Community User

dlabc563 wrote:


My apologies I should of asked you for clarification !

Please clarify ?


From the X Lab web page cited above:


"If you have secondary hard drives or other writable volumes connected to your Mac, each contains an invisible Trash folder named .Trashes at the root (top) level of the volume, which in turn contains an invisible Trash folder for each user."



"When dragging files to the Trash from removable media or a shared network volume, it is common for Trash to inform you that the files will be deleted immediately. This appears to have been a design choice due to every writable volume having its own hidden Trash folder. If you ejected the removable media or shared network volume before emptying the Trash, the files you thought were deleted would still be in .Trashesfolder at the root (top) level of that volume. Hence Mac OS X immediately deletes files moved to the Trash from removable media and shared network volumes. This also depends upon the firmware of the device informing Mac OS X that it is a removable media device. Some removable storage devices identify themselves as hard drives, meaning that items remain in the .Trashes folder if the removable storage device is ejected before the Trash is emptied and will reappear in the Trash when the device is again connected to your Mac."

Deleting files from an external drive in lion 10.7.3

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