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Delete Files from FAT32 External Drive Directly on Mac

I have an external drive with an NTFS partition and a FAT32 partition. Whenever I delete a file from the NTFS partition, they are deleted permanently. However, when I delete a file from the FAT32 partition, it is not, it goes into a hidden folder on the disk named .trashes. When I plugged the external drive to a Windows XP PC, I found this deleted file. So, how can I delete files permanently from the fat32 partition without moving it to the .trashes folder?

Best Answered by

Connie Yang

Answered on Tuesday, August 27, 2024

The hidden .trashes folder on the external hard drive in macOS is used to store the copy of the deleted files on the disk. When you right-click, press Command - Delete, or drag files from the external disk to the Trash, those deleted files are also moved to the .trashes folder and still occupy the storage space of the external drive.

If you want to permanently delete the data from the FAT32 partition without moving it to the .trashes folder, you can press Command-Shift-Delete. Or, you can move it to the Trash on your Mac and then empty the Trash.

You can also refer to: How to permanently delete files on Mac?