Large Hidden Deleted Files Question

Hello All!
I have a MacBook Pro Model 3,1running OSX 10.6.8. I was searching for files that I do not need in order to recover some disk space.

Easy Find.app found a bunch of hidden folders called "deleted". They are rather large in size.

The folders called 'deleted' are inside .indelible-info folders. Since they are hidden, I do not plan to touch them unless you all say it is A-OK

Here is a sample path for one- (There are many for many different folders)
/Users/My Name/Documents/User Manuals For Stuff We Own/.indelible-info/versions/20110118151022/deleted
(The visible folder User Manuals For Stuff We Own has exciting items such as the washing machine user guide.)

Inside "Deleted" are many, many files from various sub-folders inside "Manuals For Stuff We Own" that still exist in the visible part of the User Manuals~ folder. It also has some files that were sent to the trash a few years ago. I do not need any of the files in any of the "Deleted". The folders add up to many gigabytes of data.

Interestingly, each "Deleted" that Easy Find found are have "Date Modified" within a month of each other four years ago. I have no idea what major event took place then and why some of the files in 'deleted' are items that still exist (and are still used) in the parent folder.

Is there a safe way to delete these deleted folders?
I sure appreciate your advice!
Paul

Found a bunch of threads around 4-6 years old - all pointing to Prosoft's Data Backup leaving those files laying around the drive - several people spent some time cleaning it all from their drives.

You may want to google "indelible-info" and read 3-4 of those hits.
From what I'm reading, don't see any reason why not to delete all of them.
I would make sure you have a current backup and be ready to restore from it if needed.

Thank You BobTomay for your help.
Sorry for my delayed reply. I've been stuck trying (unsuccessfully) to fix some problems on my wife's MBP. (Several programs no longer let 2 of her user accounts save preferences. I thought it was just Stickies, Safari and Adobe Flash, so I posted questions. Today I find it is lots of programs.) Sorry, I digress...

As you suggested, I looked into the possibility that Databackup left those 'Deleted" folders around. Since the creation dates are within a month of a version update for the program and since there are, indeed, many other web pages discussing this; I'd say you are spot-on

A few months ago I removed Databackup from my system because their latest update caused many problems (Thanks to suggestions here, i use Time Machine & Super Duper!. They are great!)

Some lingering questions that I can't figure out are-

A) Inside .indelible-info is only 'Deleted' from Databackup, or are the other entries also theirs? Other entries are a folder called 'Versions" and a file called "Files" and a folder called "Modified". The folders called "Versions" are also large in size

B) I am guessing that indelible-info does NOT belong to Databackup and should be left in place. Is .indelible-info part of Mac OSX, or is it 100% Databackup & safe to ditch? I don't have a Mac that never had Databackup on it to check if .indelible-info is present.

C) Since there are thousands & thousands of 'Deleted", is there a safe way to do a batch removal of them? One is in every folder on my drive.
I read about some Terminal commands and lots of discussion of "That will work" versus "That will wreck your computer", so I chickened out. I saw some programs that say they can remove leftover stuff from removed programs, but don;t know which are real & which mess stuff up.
I once asked Prosoft how to remove all traces of the program & nothing of these folders was on their list. (Although their user manual says version data is stored in indelible on the destination, but this is the source drive- not the destination)

Thanks For Helping Me Get This Computer In Back Good Shape & Remove Excess Stuff!
Paul

I wanted to post a quick update in case someone else runs into this situation-

BobTomay's advice was spot-on. The folders were, indeed, created by Prosoft Databackup. Further research showed that they are not supposed to be on the Source drive, but on the Destination drive. There must have been a glitch at one time since the modified dates on the folders are quite old. I use Time Machine and CrashPlan for versioned backups now, so I don't know if the problem would have re-occurred.

After several e-mails with Prosoft that didn't give me any answer about the safety of deleting them or how to do the project, I decided to go ahead and delete them to see what happens.

Step One- Cloned the hard drive
Step Two- Tested the clone
Step Three- Used Easy Find to discover all .indelible-info folders. Result = 1266 folders, each with between 4 and several hundred files inside. Some are over 100 megabytes in size.
Step Four- Emptied Trash (To have a spiffy clean bucket available)
Step Five- Used Terminal to show all hidden files so I could see them in the trash (See Step Seven)
Step Six- Using Easy Find I deleted all of the folders. A few would not delete, so I used Finder with hidden files showing, changed access permissions as necessary and sent those few to the trash.
Step Seven- Moved all the folders from the trash to a temporary folder on the desktop
Step Eight- Restarted the computer
Step Nine- Used Easy Find to locate strays. Removed those, too.
Step Ten- Re-Hid files in Finder
Step Eleven- Used Onyx to repair permissions & do some cache cleaning

After a final re-start, everything I tired worked A-OK.

I will keep the temporary folder around for a few days. If life is good, I'll delete it and do a fresh, new clone.

Thanks Again BobTomay for pointing me in the right direction. Hopefully this discussion thread will help someone in the future
.

Thanks for posting the fix. That's quite a hassle. Not sure I would have thought of doing that.

You're a bit more cautious than I am. With a working clone I'd probably just ditch the folders in question. You're way is probably safer/smarter. Mine often leads to much complaining, gnashing of teeth, and the distinct possibility of swear words being used.

For once I can "Give Back". (That's a very rare event when it comes to me & computers.)

You're a bit more cautious than I am.
Cautious or big chicken?
I'm always scared of trashing things with a simple keystroke. That fear must be left over from when I used Windows 98 . OS X seems far less fragile. (And it's actually fun to use.)