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OS trashed boot.efi but won't let me empty it

I recently had to restore my system from TM Backup. After the restore, there's an old backup TM file in the trash which I can't remove. The principle reason I can't remove it is there's boot.efi file in there which is locked. Here's what I've tried


1. Changing the permission to read & write in the Get Info window.

This has no effect because the Locked option remains greyed out even after unlocking the permissions.


2. I've tried the advice given here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1402

The commands aren't accepted in Lion


3. sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

Doesn't have any effect


4. From an earlier (2008) post about this problem, it was suggesed by Kappy to try advice from this site: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

Their advice basically ends up advising one of the first three things I tried.


Any other suggestions? Ten points for the winning postcard.. 🙂

MacBook Pro 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.7), 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Posted on Sep 10, 2011 5:18 AM

Reply
50 replies

Sep 10, 2011 6:31 AM in response to softwater

Rebooting seemed to have solved the scary Finder problem but not the trash problem.


I've now figured out that the undeletable files are stored on the TM backup disk, since my trash can appears empty when TM is not connected, and not empty when it is. Also, navigating to this through Finder tree shows the offending folders and files.


Any idea how I can delete this Trash folder from the TM backup disk?


User uploaded file



I can't delete these manually. I get the error message:


User uploaded file


Any thoughts?

Mar 3, 2013 7:46 PM in response to gwilanne

I suspect that the file is in the .Trash folder of your Time Machine (TM) or some other disk (see my screenshot above), and so you don't have the permissions.


To find out if that's so, follow this procedure:


1. Open Terminal.app, copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window


defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE


Then press 'Return'. Then copy and paste this command:


killall Finder


Then press 'Return'.


2. Open a Finder window. Navigate to the TM disk starting from its icon in the left hand column. You should see some greyed out folders called .Trash and .Trashes. Click on these and have a look for the boot.efi file that we're hunting down. If you can't open these folders (if they have a red 'no entry' icon on them), post back here.



To remove the boot.efi file from the hidden trash, try the following:


3. Go back to Terminal and copy and paste the following:


sudo rm -rf


Do NOT press 'Return'. Instead, press the Spacebar once, then use your cursor to drag the boot.efi file from the hidden folder in Step 2 and drop it in the Terminal window. Now press 'Return'. You will be asked for an administrator password and given a warning which you can ignore. Type in your password, but notice that your typing will be invisible, so type carefully. Press 'Return'.


4. If you typed your password incorrectly, repeat step 3. If you typed it correctly, hopefully, your Trash is empty! If not, post back here with any messages from Terminal.


5. Last thing is to hide all the hidden files again, copy and paste this:


defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE


Then press 'Return'. Then copy and paste this command:


killall Finder


You can close Terminal now.



Good luck! 🙂

OS trashed boot.efi but won't let me empty it

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