>MAry asks:
>> From: Mary Hawking <[log in to unmask]>
>
>>
>> If you delete a message before or after reading it,does it take up space
>> on the hard disc?
>> Mary
>
>
>Depends a little bit on your system, and on how it interacts with
>e-mail.
>
>In general, messages that are awaiting reading are held either on a
>part of your hard disk, or on the hard disk of a part of the mail
>service (the posh name for the second one is a 'message store', which
>more or less says it all).
>
>When you read the message, it is usually copied onto your local hard
>disk, simply to have it readily accessible in case you want to
>forward it, reply to it, or whatever. However, once you delete it,
>the space it occupies will be freed. The freed space may not be
>immediately available for other applications; some mail systems have
>a process which is activated from time to time which does a 'garbage
>collection', finding all the bits of disk that have been used and
>collecting them altogether, then re-organising the material that is
>left so that it forms a compact sset of material, finally handing
>back the space that has been freed. That is why when you are doing
>mail, you may find your system goes into a sudden orgy of disk
>transfers, for no apparent reason.
>
>Mike Wells
>
>Not quite the whole story: it depends on whether your email program
maintains or offers a safety-net 'trash-can'. Eudora at least merely
transfers 'deleted' mail to its 'trash' mailbox if you have not selected
'emptying' of the trash mailbox after every session. I personally find it
useful to let it pile up and to empty it deliberately at intervals - there
always seem to be messages I thought I wouldn't want to see again but later
change my mind about.
Hugh deG
Senior Lurker
>
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