Shorty’s Fun Facts #1 - Why does Vista take so much longer to empty the Recycle Bin than Leopard takes to empty the Trash?

Well did you know that when you “empty the trash” in Leopard the files aren’t actually deleted? Instead they are marked for overwrite. So for example when I delete 5GB worth of data, the files are actually still there. Except now Leopard will overwrite those files with new ones you create at some point. Who knows when they will actually get overwritten though. You could potentially still have files on your hard drive that you thought you deleted weeks ago. That’s why there is also the option for “Secure Empty Trash” this option will really delete the files. That’s why it takes a lot, lot longer.