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Level 1

1 points

Trash is showing negative numbers, what do I do?

I just bought a new Macbook pro with OSX Lion and I am trying to delete some old Time Machine backups from an external hard drive. I Placed the files in my trash and I cannot delete them or place them back in the original folder. When I try to empty trash it hits zero then continues on into negative numbers no matter how long I wait! The files only appear in my treash when the portable hard drive is plugged in and also when I try to find the files on my old computer to delete them through time machine itself, they are not there. What do I do? I have already tried sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash several times to no avail. Help!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 5, 2011 2:08 PM

19 replies

Aug 20, 2013 8:08 PM in response to Alexsandr

The terminal command: sudo rm -rf /Volumes/"TIME MACHINE DRIVE"/.Trashes works perfectly with no wait. Remember to replace the quoted text with the actual name of your drive...

Mar 26, 2015 6:18 AM in response to mcmorry

Here's what worked for me. Force power down with power button. Upon restarting, don't let it open apps running previously. Open Disk Utility, erase external disk, empty trash - Done! On a MacBook Pro 13" 2015, running Yosemite.

jobal

Level 1

0 points

Nov 1, 2015 4:09 AM in response to Michael Fox3

Thanks for this, it worked a treat.

In future - I will never move backups from my time machine to the trash bin.

Having said that, this whole experience has taught me a few things.

Thanks again

Nov 13, 2015 3:43 PM in response to anders.blomberg

I also took the path of least resistance and waited for the process to end. Let the negative numbers roll. Eventually, the Trash will be emptied and your trash bin will be shiny clean again!

Trash is showing negative numbers, what do I do?