Nothing can put a bridle on information. Ever since the beginning of age, information is always on the move. It’s always multiplied, passed on, stored for a little while, then re-replicated and continued on with its journey. The only thing that changes about the whole account is the media that carries the information.

If we apply today’s computer and internet age into the context, the main character of the story would be digital bits and bytes, and the settings would be the real world and the virtual world. While transferring data through the internet requires only a few clicks, we’ll need extra help to copy/move files in the real world.

Tale of the thumbs and the trash bin

I think it’s safe to say that external storage is and inseparable part of a computer user’s life today. Aside form optical disks, USB thumb drives might be the most popular external storage used today. While small and light enough to be carried around, the capacity is generally spacious enough to keep large amounts of data. And unlike its thin-circular counterpart, the contents inside the thumbs are easily erased and re-written.

And even though deleting files is only a “Delete” keypress away, there are more behind this trashing things than meets the eye. That action doesn’t really delete the files. They are just moved to Trash, a concept invented by OS makers after learning from the not-so-amusing past experiences. To get rid of your garbage completely, you have to empty the bin.

Playing With Garbage

As advanced as it might be, Mac OS X trash management system still leaves several questions unanswered. If your deleted files are from both computer’s hard drive and external storage, what will happen to them if you unplug the external device before emptying out the Trash? Where will those files stay? In the computer’s Trash or in the thumb drive?

What should you do if you want to empty the Mac external drive’s Trash but leave the computer’s Trash intact? You could plug the drive to a non OS X computer and delete the hidden “.Trashes” file, but that breaks the simplicity rule.

The simpler way would be to use Curb. This app is, as the developers says, “A Good Place to bring your Trash.” What Curb does is clear everything out from inside your removable media’s Trash.

All you’ve got to do is drag and drop the external volume(s) into Curb’s window, and Curb will take care of all the housekeeping process.

You will be notified if the external drive has no garbage inside it.

You can customize everything that will happen by opening the Preferences window (Command + Comma).

Some of the options are:

• to completely remove or just to move the trash to local Trash.
• to use secure remove if your data is confidential.
• to have confirmation window prior to emptying the trash.
• to automatically eject the volume after the process.

To some people, Curb might mean nothing. But for those who use external drives a lot, this little app will make life a whole lot easier.

Have you tried Curb? Do you know other alternatives? Share your thoughts, opinions, and experiences using the comment below.

Image credit: Gadget_Guru