Why is there no undelete option?

I am having a problem with accidental erasure of pictures from a memory stick Duo, and find it's a general Mac problem.

Why isn't there an unerase or undelete command built into OSX? It can be done, several commercial programs do it. But this is a general, everybody makes mistakes once in a while, kind of thing.

And no addressing of it in any help menu I can find. Of course they keep linking you in circles. Manuals! One thing better done in serial. When you've read all the pages, you know it! (And generaly just how screwed you are.) Not left wondering if there was a link you missed because you call it something else.

Generally, a delete moves items to the trash. You can open that and restore. I guess I'm missing what the problem is in that regard.

MToo said:

Why isn't there an unerase or undelete command built into OSX? It can be done, several commercial programs do it. But this is a general, everybody makes mistakes once in a while, kind of thing.

Click to expand...

A couple thoughts:

1. Yes...folks make mistakes (and I'm certainly not perfect). Been computing for around 25 years...and I can't remember the last time I accidentally deleted something.

2. Something to think about with Mac OS X. Just because you delete something doesn't mean it's gone. Deleting...means that your items are just sent to the "trash can"...your items remain in the "Trash can" until YOU give the command to empty the trash. When you go to empty the trash...Mac OS X asks you: "Are you sure you want to permanently erase the items in the Trash?".

So I'll summarize the process:

1. The user deletes or moves something to the Trash Can. If the user wants to "undelete" something...they just need to remove it from the Trash Can.
2. The user must give the command to empty the Trash Can.
3. Before the trash can is actually emptied...Mac OS X issues the warning "Are you sure you want to permanently erase the items in the Trash?"
4. Finally the user must click either "Cancel" or "Empty Trash" to actually empty the trash.

To me...this takes a lot of conscious effort on the user to accidentally delete something!!!

- Nick

And not only that, but there is an unerase or undelete command if you use it prior to emptying the trash, same as in those other OSs.

Open up the Finder to the Trash Can and right click (control click) on the file and select "Put Back" and it will put the files back where they came from.

One more option, though I'm not really up on the technology as I should be considering my position but... What about Time Machine? I realize that it's meant to back up the OS, but won't it also preserve the file structure including personal files which existed prior to deleting ?

Doug

Yep, it backs up EVERYTHING it's not specifically told not to (on a local disk). So as long as it's actually been on through at least one time machine backup.. it's there.

In a set of folders of 500 files, you can lose track off which you want, or others can delete, and empty the trash. Ever have a cat or child hit a key while you are typing?

In this case, the delete was on a cybershot camera with no trash can or are you sure message. Which only helps if you aren't sure at the time. And no time machine.

Minds Change. How about a different tack. Does anybody know of a program that low level reads mass storage device protocol USB devices. The equivalent of a byte by byte identical copy on the old floppy disks?

MToo said:

In this case, the delete was on a cybershot camera with no trash can or are you sure message. Which only helps if you aren't sure at the time. And no time machine.

Click to expand...

I should drink more coffee in the morning but i really can't understand your last post. And this snippet, is this what you are talking about you have deleted ?? If so then it has nothing to do with the Mac OS.
Unless I'm missing something which well could be right.

Cheers