Best way to delete files

Removing files doesn't free up any space on your hard drive; you must delete them. Protools will not let you delete files if regions from them are used in a playlist, so first delete the playlists that contain the files you want to delete, then delete them from the region bin.

Select all unused files> remove them> select all files> compact selected......read page 263 - Chapter 20:Managing Regions Use this to permanetly delete files after all editing and cross fades are done!

You don't have to keep hitting "return over and over".. use the Option key and just hit it once. BTW - I personally like to remove all unused regions and delete unused playlists.. then use Save Session Copy In.. and create a new session with all the audio in a localized area.. then after checking that the session is okay - going back and deleting the original session (after backing it up in duplicate to tape). Rail

use destructive record

Regarding MM's post: If you select all unused files and remove them they will still be on your hard drive. Compacting the remaining files has the potential to free up a lot of space, but it will not delete an unused file from the drive. Once a file has been removed from the session, the only way to delete it from the drive is to trash it from the finder. This is dangerous, because you could trash a file from which regions were in use, even though Protools let you remove it because the whole unedited file wasn't in use. Here is the best way I''ve found to delete all unused files, and it is a bit tedious, so if anyone can suggest a faster way, please do. 1. Delete all unused playlists. 2. In the region bin select "unused except for whole sound files". 3. From the options given in the "clear selected" menu, select "Remove". Now all remaining edited regions (not bold font) in the bin are actually being used in the session. 4. In the region bin select "all unused sound files'. The selected files should all be bold font. They include unused whole sound files (which you want to delete) and whole sound files form which regions are in use (which cannot be deleted, although they can be compacted.) 5. From the options given in the "clear selected" menu, select "Delete". Now as the program tediously takes you through each selected file, you will see one of two dialog boxes: A) If the file is not in use (no edited regions from it are in the session, you will get the message saying "The file xxx will be deleted from disk, gone forever. Do you want to delete it?" Click "Yes" and the file will be deleted. B) If regions from the file are in use, you will get a message to that effect, and be given the option to remove it from the session. If you click "Yes" the file will no longer show up in your region bin, although regions that come from it will. If you click "No" the file will remain in your region bin and you can compact it. Any suggestions for streamlining this process?

edited by me, browser error...

Yes, you should first delete whole unused files and then remove any other unused parts of files. Then highlight all remaining files and choose compact. "The Compact selected command DELETES audio if there are no regions referencing the data. For this reason you should delete any unused regions before compacting". "Because it permanetly deletes audio data, the Compact Selected command should be used only after you have completely finished your editing and are sure that you have no further use for the unused audio data"....page 263 - manual

However you look at it, it's a dumb assed way of working. I can understand digi not wanting us to loose needed audio by accident. But, the way it all works now is confusing because it doesn't work as you would expect.