Too many items in trash

Question

Level 1

2 points

Too many items in trash

When I start to empty trash, the progress bar shows many more items to be emptied than I put in the trash, sometimes over 2,000 items even though I have put fewer than 10 items in the trash. It takes a very long time for the progress bar to finish and for the trash to empty. I'm running OS 10.5.7 on a Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5. I ran archive and install, but that didn't help. Nor did repairing the disk with Disk Utility or with DiskWarrior.

Dual 2.5 GHz PowerPC G5, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jul 27, 2009 6:05 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

85,314 points

Jul 27, 2009 6:27 AM in response to Stan10504

Do you have more than one hard disk connected?
Before you attempted emptying the trash, did you try to put in a Previous System folder?
Have you tried using a disk browser to determine if there might be invisible files in your trash?
Can you tell us your trash contents?

Disk browsers are listed on my FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

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Answer 2

Stan10504 Author

Level 1

2 points

Jul 29, 2009 8:02 AM in response to a brody

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I have a second internal hard disk reserved for SuperDuper clones and three external hard drives. They were all connected for many months before problem developed.

No, I did not attempt to put a Previous System folder in the trash.

Not sure what you mean about using a disk browser. I did run OmniDiskSweeper and didn't see anything unusual. But I may not know what to look for.

Contents of trash is whatever I put in it. Most recently there were two 20 KB png files and one 48 KB doc file. However, when I emptied the trash, the progress bar showed 15 items being deleted.

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Answer 3

Stan10504 Author

Level 1

2 points

Aug 2, 2009 12:39 PM in response to a brody

Not sure what sequence you're suggesting I follow. Here's what I did. Unmounted and disconnected Time Capsule and my two other non-boot drives. Placed one 692 kb jpeg file in empty trash container. Immediately emptied trash. Progress bar showed five items being deleted.

Better than yesterday. Progress bar showed over 25,000 items to delete; took all day.

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Answer 4

a brody

Level 10

85,314 points

Aug 3, 2009 6:19 AM in response to Stan10504

That clearly says the Trash is mapping to items stuck on the external hard drive. That may be what's slowing you down. You probably want to ensure that Time Machine is turned off temporarily so you can empty your trash.

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Answer 5

Stan10504 Author

Level 1

2 points

Aug 3, 2009 1:31 PM in response to a brody

Thanks, but I may have misled you. The fact that the progress bar had to work through five items when I had placed only one in the trash after unmounting and disconnecting Time Capsule and other non-boot drives tells me that the problem was still there. This happened even though I immediately emptied the trash. Based on my experience, the number of items to be deleted would have gone up to at least 10 if I had waited a minute. Ironically, I noticed when I checked Time Machine preferences that it had in fact been turned off and not backing up for three days. The problem persisted during the entire time it was shut off.

I appreciate your efforts very much, but I don't think we've gotten to the answer.

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Answer 6

a brody

Level 10

85,314 points

Aug 3, 2009 1:49 PM in response to Stan10504

You can try to make all items on the operating system visible, with the proviso, you don't attempt to delete, move, or rename any file you don't have any idea what its origin is from or its need for the operating system. To do that, you need the tool called Tinkertool:

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html

If the files in the trash that are rendered visible are files you created yourself, only then should you desire to delete them. Otherwise, you may render your system inoperable. Check with an authorized service center what may have been the source of the said files that you have no idea their origin, before attempting to delete, move, or rename them.

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Answer 7

a brody

Level 10

85,314 points

Jul 29, 2009 1:37 PM in response to Stan10504

Is there anything in the trash, if you dismount and disconnect all non-boot drives?

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Answer 8

Stan10504 Author

Level 1

2 points

Aug 3, 2009 6:44 PM in response to a brody

Thanks. TinkerTool led me to some interesting ways to change some of my settings and some of the items that I can see, but it didn't tell me anything about the contents of Trash.

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