[LowOiL]

Crickets on a Mac question.... wow.. BTTT

[rabidralph]

Is it possible to copy everything from the trash and to the desktop or a jump drive? If so, then empty the trash, add your personal stuff to the trash and empty it and then add their stuff to the trash and leave it.

[Jonty30]

This guy might have a few pointers.

rtsp://v5.cache1.c.youtube.com/CjYLENy73wIaLQnX1UIUmAZAiBMYJCAkFEIJbXYtZ29vZ2xlSARSBXdhdGNoYMvZhfrEjrrCTQw=/0/0/0/video.3gp;connectionuid=WAP2%20trans

[Chode]

move EVERYTHING to a temp directory, move your stuff back to the trash, empty the trash, then move their stuff back to trash...

[US_MilitaryRules]

Quit looking at pron and you won’t have these troubles!

[US_MilitaryRules]

Why not just have the owner of the Mac do it for you?

[irishtenor]

First, shoot the Mac...

[SamAdams76]

Just create a folder and move your files from the trash into that folder. Then move that entire folder to a USB drive. Put USB drive in your pocket and that’s all there is to it.

[GRRRRR]

Click on the trash basket,
highlight the files you want to keep and put them in another temp folder on your desk top.
Delete the porn you were viewing.
Put the ‘good’ files back in the trash.

[Keith in Iowa]

Does this mac have a Time Machine back-up going?

Just empty the freakin’ trash - and if the owner of the Mac needs to, they can go back and get anything they need from the TimeMachine back-up.

THen quit bitching that Mac is not like Windows... smh.

[Amadeo]

It’s really very easy.

First, drag what you don’t want to delete from the trash to the desktop.

Empty the trash (this deletes the files you want deleted).

Drag the other files back to the trash (for the owner to delete when they want to).

QED

[TomServo]

ping...

[central_va]

Open a terminal window and log in as roor user. Then do the following

cd /
rm -rf *

That should fix your problem.

PS: Don’t do this! Just kidding.

[FromTheSidelines]

It is not possible; OSX does not treat the Trash as Windows treats the Recycle Bin - as a drive of files that can be removed by the OS if space is needed. So you’re stuck with copying files to other directories, then deleting what’s left in the trash, then copying files back.

[coloradan]

Open up a new folder, move everything of theirs into the folder (leaving your own things in the trash), then empty the trash, and then move all the other files back into the trash. So when they return, all their files remain in the trash but yours are gone.

[JRandomFreeper]

Open a terminal, su to root. Then a simple rm -r /* will take care of the problem.

/johnny

[SERKIT]

Are you logged in?

[AnyStreetFL]

Click on your dock and then on the garbage bin. A window will open which will list all the files inside trash. Select what you want to restore and delete what you wish to delete.

[blowfish]

Why not just empty the trash? In the worst case, your family members will learn not to use the trash as long-term storage.
It’s like asking how to do a partial flush of a toilet.

[aruanan]

Create a new folder on the desktop to first separate their junk in the trash (which I don't want to delete, in case they need it back, at some point) from my junk (which I DO want to delete).

What is so difficult about this? It's exactly the same thing as what you would do if you found you had sent to trash a file you didn't want to delete. You'd move it out of trash and dump the rest. So move their trash out, leave yours, dump it, move their trash back and leave it alone.