I've encountered one annoying Mac problem...

I suppose this isn't the MacBook's fault, but this is really getting annoying. Every time I empty my trash I get the attached message. For some reason, although my trash can is empty, it says that that document is in there when it isn't. It is an old document from our college mail service and I don't even remember ever putting it in my trash. I've tried to find the document in Spotlight but to no avail. Anyone know how I can get rid of that annoying message every time I empty the trash?

i'm guessing you can try onxx to clear all your caches.

beyond that, i've no idea!

Will clearing my caches clear all of my documents? What exactly does clearing caches do?

Clearing caches does just that, it "clears" the "cache"

Cached items allow the computer to re-access apps, information, etc. faster.

Cache:

In computer science, a cache (pronounced "cash" /kæʃ/ or /kaʃ/[citation needed]) is a collection of data duplicating original values stored elsewhere or computed earlier, where the original data is expensive (usually in terms of access time) to fetch or compute relative to reading the cache. Once the data is stored in the cache, future use can be made by accessing the cached copy rather than re-fetching or recomputing the original data, so that the average access time is lower.

Click to expand...

To delete cache (and much more) I use Onyx.

You can also use Onyx to "Show Hidden Files" which may be what is in your Trash.

Another way to show hidden files (without Onyx) is to type the following command in the Terminal:



defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES;killall Finder



Hope that helps,

Wow that worked. Thanks a lot. Onyx is a great program.

nice.

Rep to Eric for excellent help. Onyx is a great little utility!!

Great.. just FYI to you (or anyone else) if you used the Terminal command to show hidden files...

The Command to HIDE hidden files is:


defaults delete com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles;killall Finder


It's best to keep hidden files hidden, when not working with them specifically.

Now, what is the equivalent of Onyx for Windows? I'd like to have a program that does that for my PC, maybe it'll run quicker and be less annoying. Even though, no matter how much I clean it up, it's still gonna be Windows.

The other question I have is, why is it necessary for OnyX to check my startup volume?

dtravis7 said:

Rep to Eric for excellent help. Onyx is a great little utility!!

Click to expand...

I already did that as well. He definitely earned the MOTM title.

onyx also has a switch for hidden files (as RIDE was alluding to).


Customer. for windows, i normally just emptied the ctemp and cdocuments and settings\[user]\local settings\temp\
and then made sure to keep my temporary internet files in check.
also run spybot search and destroy, a good virus program, and your favorite flavor of registry checker, and you should be mostly ok.

Ok, I'll try that, thanks a bunch.

oh, btw, some files won't delete from those temp folders.

your best bet is to sort by date and ignore any created on the current day, or the day you last logged on if you're machine has been "up" for more than a day.

Ok, I'm hoping that makes my PC run a bit faster. But what about startup volume, why exactly does OnyX need to check that? Why is it important?

Check out this "Guide to Onyx" posted by Pulse-8: CLICK!