HELP - when you replace an existing file by drag and drop where does the original go?

[zylidan]

Hi, got a power mac G5 and have just dragged and dropped a music track I was working on from my desktop onto a memory stick and and replaced the original file on the memory stick only to find. I then emptied the trash after ejecting the memory stick.

I've opened the memory stick up on my macbook pro to find the file I 'replaced' doesn't contain the track at all but only a folder with its name.

I'm trying to find out the original file goes when it is replaced?

I've balls up big somewhere but if anyone could help i'd really appreciate it.
many thanks

 

[Doug b]

You've pretty much answered your own question. You "replaced" the file. The original file goes ... bye bye, I'm afraid. When you did this, OS X actually asked you to confirm whether or not you wanted to replace the file with said same name, and you're the one who confirmed for it to do so.

In order to have saved the previous file, you should have named the two files something differently rather than have another file with the same name write over the previous one. This ain't Windows, and so it doesn't behave as such either. There's documentation on this somewhere within the Switcher's 101 tutorials, but you can't expect Apple to spoon feed everything to us. Not saying you do, but most people expect to have things done for them without having to do any actual reading or leg work at all.

Lesson learned, but don't beat yourself up over it.

As an aside, you might be interested in something called "File Merge", which is actually an Apple tool that comes on every install disk (so if you have your OS X install disks, it's there but it's an "optional" install) but it's not called file merge on the surface because it's integrated with "Xcode". Xcode is a free download on Apple's developer's site, so you need to be registered as a developer. Kind of stupid if you asked me, since Xcode is found on install disks, but maybe I'm missing something? Anyway, Google for OS X File Merge and you should find good info on it.

Doug

 

[toMACsh]

I'm working with a web-based document management system that preserves endless versions of files. Every time you save, or "overwrite" the file, it just creates a new version. You can't see this happening; there's just one file in the directory. But you can reveal the past versions and go back to any one you want. Maybe someday, all operating systems will do this. I suppose it's a matter of disk space for a PC.

 

[vansmith]

If I understand it correctly, you're looking for something like snapshots with ZFS?

 

[zylidan]

thanks all for quick reply - lesson learnt - be more careful and back up regularly!