Erasing specific folders/files.

[Freddid]

I have copied my photos onto a mem drive, a portable HD and am in the process of storing them in the cloud.

I need more free space on my internal HD and would like to erase JUST most of the photo files (approx. 8k of them) from the internal HD.

How can I erase JUST specific photo folders/files? Thank you!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You'd have to highlight each one and then poke the delete key, unless they have something in common within their file names. You can of course highlight more than one file at a time and delete them all with a single poke of the delete key.

For instance, if you have a bunch of pictures named dog1.jpg, dog2.jpg, etc up to dog4400.jpg, you could delete all of them quickly from a command prompt.

But if they just have random names, you pretty much have to do it by hand, evaluating each one separately--presumably by eyesight.

Personally, I wouldn't get myself in a position of complete reliance on a cloud backup. But that's your business.

 

[Freddid]

Trying to erase folders completely.

ignatzsonic: My understanding of "delete" and/or the recycle bin is that whatever is deleted is still present and taking up room on the hard drive.

The warning I am getting says that 95% of my hard drive is in use.

Along with Shoebox, I've also backed up pics on mem stick and external hard drive. I do feel like I'm wearing a belt and 2 pairs of suspenders.

If "deleting" doesn't actually remove/erase folders/files, I'm still at a loss as to what to do. I am looking around on the net trying to find solutions, not just relying on Seven's helpful crew. Thanks for responding.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

ignatzsonic: My understanding of "delete" and/or the recycle bin is that whatever is deleted is still present and taking up room on the hard drive.

Only partially correct, and missing the crucial point. They are still present, but not taking up space as it is calculated by Windows.

Imagine a book with a detailed index.

Suppose one entry in the index is "George Washington, pages 3, 33, 334, 370".

In a book, if you erased those entries or even tore out the entire index, it would have no effect on the George Washington references on those pages.

But computers don't work that way.

When you delete a file, you are effectively telling Windows "that space devoted to George Washington on those pages is hereby set free and can be used to hold other files". It's just as free and available as some location on your hard drive that has never had ANYTHING on it. So a deletion of the file DOES add to free space.

The George Washington files are still there until they are actually overwritten by some other files. Until that happens you might be able to recover them with the right tool, but for practical purposes they are gone and they are gone for the purposes of calculating how much free space you have on your drive.

Try it yourself. Note your total free space. Then delete a wad of files and recheck your free space--after deleting the files from the recycle bin.

 

[Freddid]

Ok, if I understand you correctly, I delete the folders/files and then once they are in the recyle bin, I empty that. Aside from the HD space used warning, I don't know where to check free space. How do I do that? Thanks.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Right click a drive in Windows Explorer and look at the "properties" tab. You'll see both a pie chart and the raw numbers.

The recycle bin is simply another folder. A file deletion won't add to your free space UNTIL the file has been deleted from the recycle bin.