TrashMaster has a new name and some important new functions. The utility is now called Guaranteed Undelete, a name which indicates its new powers.
Guaranteed Undelete has three basic functions, making it the equivalent of three separate utilities in one package.
Selective Trash Management
TrashMaster extends the functionality of the Finder’s Empty Trash command in two ways. The first—and simplest—is by adding a hierarchical submenu to the Empty Trash Command. This menu shows all of the files and folders that are currently in the trash. If you have more than one hard drive, you will see which items belong to each drive. In addition to the files’ names, there is also an icon indicating the type of the file and a number indicating its size. The number alongside a drive shows available free space.
Selecting an item from this submenu deletes it from your hard drive. If you select a folder or drive, all of its trash contents will be deleted. Selecting the Empty Trash command alone (without going into the submenus) will cause all of the items in the trash to be deleted.
TrashMaster can also automate emptying the trash by allowing the creation of user-defined “filters” that controls what gets deleted and when. Criteria can be set for file size or age, type and/or creator, or by way of extensions to the filename. The trash can be emptied hourly, daily, when you insert or eject a disk, at startup or at shutdown. You can even set it up to immediately delete items—they’re gone as soon as they hit the can.
These filters allow for a great deal of flexibility. My favorite filter is one which automatically empties the trash on a floppy when it is ejected.
Confidentiality Control
The second function—Incinerator—is designed to completely erase confidential files from your drive. Files which have been discarded by ordinary means can often be reclaimed, perhaps allowing information to fall into the wrong hands. An Incinerated file is erased to Department of Defense standards. Incineration can be done automatically (via a TrashMaster filter) or manually.
Recovering Lost Files
The third feature of Guaranteed Undelete allows you to recover files which have been deleted accidentally. This works just as easily as the other functions; simply hold down the Command key while selecting the Finder’s Special menu. The Empty Trash command changes to Recover Trash… with the same hierarchical menu.
One of the real advantages of Guaranteed Undelete over other undeleting utilities is that it keeps track of folders and their contents. Let’s say you’ve deleted a folder with fifteen files inside. Other utilities would force you to choose each file from a list of scores or hundreds of files. With Guaranteed Undelete, however, you can recover the entire folder—contents undisturbed—with one click. You can even choose to return all of the files/folders to their original locations on your hard drive.
The “guaranteed” in Guaranteed Undelete comes from the utility’s guarantee to recover the most recently deleted files. It does this, according to Utilitron, by reclaiming files in the order they were deleted. It does not track temporary files (made by applications), and its efficiency is limited only by available disk space. You can even recover files from remote volumes on a network.
Guaranteed Undelete’s few settings are managed by a straightforward Control Panel. The TrashMaster functions can be turned off or on without the need to reboot.
One aspect of Guaranteed Undelete should be pointed out. If you set a filter to empty the trash of a floppy disk when it is ejected, and then take that disk to another Mac which is not equipped with Guaranteed Undelete, the trashed files will show up in a folder on the desktop.
Conclusions
The original TrashMaster utility had a limited degree of appeal simply because few users felt the need to automate their trash disposal, however cleverly it was handled. Recovering accidentally deleted files, however, is a powerful function that many people will value, and Guaranteed Undelete has features which are clearly superior to the competition, especially with regard to its interface. Combining all of these features will surely make for a winner.
Guaranteed Undelete is compatible with both System 6 and System 7, although some features are available only under System 7.
[Note: Utilitron is also the creator of HandOff II, SuperMenu, and other Macintosh utilities.]
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The article above is reprinted from Mac Monitor, the newsletter of The Savannah Macintosh Users Group. It may be reprinted in a single issue of newsletters published by non-profit user groups. Payment shall consist of a single issue of the newsletter in which the article appears, sent to the following address:
