[sefton]

I have an 8GB pen drive which I use to move video files between work and home but every time I move or delete files from the pen drive on my MacBook the available space doesn't change.
I'm sure it is something I'm doing wrong but I can't work out what.

[Randy_B_Singer]

I sometimes have this problem also (even after emptying the trash). But since, like you, I only use the drive for transferring or transporting files, its easy, and no problem, to simply reformat the pen drive with Disk Utility occasionally, which recovers all of the free space.

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
Make sure you empty the trash before unmounting / ejecting the flash drive.

[sefton]

Empty the trash.
Doh!

[mdawson]

If you are in anyway accustomed to using Windows, you can blame Microsoft for this misstep. The entire purpose of (virtual) Trash, in fact every facet of the virtual desktop, is to mimic the real world. In most cases items are not gone when you throw them away until you empty the trashnot that you would necessarily want to rifle through your own trashor more properly, your trash collection service, be it municipal or private, removes it from your property. Putting a file or folder into the trash is akin to tossing something in a wastebasket in your home while emptying it is akin to what occurs on trash day. For whatever reason, in Windows, deleting files on a flash drive is akin to tossing it in a shredder, so when you delete it, it is gone in one step instead of two.