Emptying trash

Just a quick one people if i could ... Before i make the mistake of never seeing files again.
Say i open itunes and drag a song onto desktop for no particular reason, i want to get it of the desktop by throwing it trash. When i go and empty trash will the song still be in my itunes ??? And same goes to all files and such. Over time have dragged alot to desktop then want to clean desktop so put them into trash. Will it delete the original file from where ever it has been of is it still there.
I know there is prob a thread somewhere but its early morn im dog tired and cant seem to find what i need in a thread,
Thanks in advance and if someone could give a explanation on how the trash works would be muchly appreciated...
Dont want to loose anything important And yes im backed up to a external HD

If the files are on your prime HD, as a source for iTunes lets say, and you drag a tune into trash and empty it, wave bye bye to it, same for any file.
If they are stored on the external and you access them from there, then no, you can drag them where you like after you put them on desktop, you will have made a copy because you will have effectively dragged from your external.
There, clear as mud!

As for "all files and such" you had better be careful! Be sure it's a copy before you Trash it. Most likely, those are the originals. Unless you're dragging from a folder that's on another drive, it just moves the file.

Back in OS9 there was a command called Put Away which did just what it says; highlight the file, execute Put Away, and it magically moved back to the folder it came from. I've seen rumors circulating that 10.6 will bring this useful function back, so if you can wait til then...

I'm not sure how this works with things from iTunes. But you can find out. Drag a song to your desktop, then look for it within iTunes. If you can't find it, put it back!

Kevriano said:

If they are stored on the external and you access them from there, then no, you can drag them where you like after you put them on desktop, you will have made a copy because you will have effectively dragged from your external.
There, clear as mud!

Click to expand...

Thanks mate, thats what i wanted was a clear as mud answer ......

toMACsh said:

Back in OS9 there was a command called Put Away which did just what it says; highlight the file, execute Put Away, and it magically moved back to the folder it came from. I've seen rumors circulating that 10.6 will bring this useful function back, so if you can wait til then...

Click to expand...

Yea kudos....... Is the one thing in trash i really think needs looking at. Its the one thing in windows that works well. Click on a item that u want to and it restores that and only that file/folder to where it came from.

Will keep a eye out for 10.6
Cheers for all help

The advice here is misleading.

if you drag a tune from iTunes to your desktop, a copy is placed on the desktop and the original remains in the music database and remains visible in iTunes. Hence you can safely delete such files that you have dragged to the desktop.

The same applies to many applications (photo handling in iPhoto and Aperture for instance) - but it is easy for you to check if you are not sure: simply drag a file and check that it remains visible in the original application.

Apple is not entirely daft - fail safes are generally built in to prevent user error.

Hence "put away" for such things is redundant.