When the Mac’s Trash could destroy your files

A closer look

The safety net of modern computing used to be completely nonexistent. On the very first Macintosh systems in 1984, the 'Trash' folder didn't save your files for later review. It just held them in RAM. If you ejected your floppy disk, turned off the computer, or simply ran out of memory, the system would permanently wipe the trash completely unprompted. It was the digital equivalent of a trash can that randomly incinerates its contents.