Managing External Drive Trash Bin

It's best to always empty the trash before you disconnect (unmount) an external drive.

As far as I know, there is no separate Trash per drive. When you move folders/files to the Trash what actually happens is that the folders/files are "marked" as deleted and are no longer shown in the Finder ... but they are not actually deleted at that point and they continue to occupy space. This is why you can recover files from the Trash when necessary. Emptying the trash is what does the actual delete and frees up the space.

If you move files that are on an external drive to the Trash but don't empty the trash before disconnecting the drive, there is the possibility that the "marked" files may become orphaned in which case it may be very difficult to remove them.

Hello Farzad_K,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. We see you have some questions about trash on your external hard drive. The following link can help explain how to delete files: Delete files and folders on Mac - Apple Support

As it seems you know how to delete already, and are just looking for ways to separate how you delete, we'd recommend leaving feedback about this here: Product Feedback - Apple

Regards.

As MartinR said: the files are actually deleted only when you empty the trash.

To clarify how they are "marked for deletion", they are in fact just moved to a hidden folder inside the same drive. So they in fact are still occupying the same space as before, until you actually delete the trash.

If you are feeling adventurous, there is a way to quickly delete the trash in a specific drive, if you know its exact location, but I will not share it, as there is great potential for error - you'd be using a far-reaching command in Terminal and if you make a mistake you could end up in serious trouble. Hence, it is best to just... empty the trash. Even if you have to wait for a bit, it is worth the peace of mind.