Can't remove file

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

Try using Trash It!.

If the file is in your own Trash, you can try

$ rm -f ~/.Trash/A9AE*

But where is this file coming from?

Do you have Windows installed in a Boot Camp partition?

If so, see these threads:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1998633

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3151480

How do I put in? Not sure where it came from. Info indicates:

Kind: Alias

Size: Zero KB on disk (Zero bytes)

Where: /Volumes/NO NAME/.Trashes/501

Preview: Indicates a never ending spinning wheel.

Open Terminal, copy/paste the line that fane_j gave you into the terminal window and hit return.

rm -f ~/.Trash/A9AE*

Does that line above that states "Where" really say "NO NAME" or did you just edit it out?

The fact that is in .Trashes/501 tells me that file is from a volume other than your boot drive. Is that drive currently unmounted?

Let's see if I can help. Sometimes the OS has issues deleting files with pesky characters in the file name. Open the Terminal application and copy then paste the following command into the Terminal.app window and press the return key. Post back the command and the ouput that is produced.

Terminal is in utilities. The fact that the volumn may be unmounted may mean this won't work but try it anyhow.

Also realized the command is incorrect now that I see where it is:

rm -rf /Volumes/NO\ NAME/.Trashes/501/A9AE*

And you may need to try using sudo if that doesn't work.

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/NO\ NAME/.Trashes/501/A9AE*

with sudo you will be prompted for your admin password (it will not echo as you type) and then hit return.

If the volume was unmounted then the file would disappear from the users trash can. I'll let you try to remove the file with a wild card in the file name but I'm sure that the file will have to be deleted by it's inode or catalog node id. Give me a holler if you need help.

plaarch wrote:

where do I find "Terminal"?

<http://guides.macrumors.com/Terminal>

Where: /Volumes/NO NAME/.Trashes/501

It would be useful to tell us more about "NO NAME". Is it an ext'l drive? A camera? A thumb drive or SD card? An MP3 player? How is it formatted? Was it used with Win or some other non-Mac device?

If it's an ext'l drive, it might be wise to verify it first with Disk Utility, just in case this strange name actually indicates directory corruption. If it's a camera or MP3 player, it might be better to attempt to remove it with the device's own file management facility.

As Mark Jalbert says, in the end—and depending on the file system—, it might come down to deleting it by its inode number, which is tricky; it might be easier to back up whatever files need backing up, and then reformatting it. It depends on what "NO NAME" is.

Again, do you have a Windows installation in your computer? There are quite a few threads heredescribing similar files with forbidden characters in the external trash, which cannot be deleted normally. They usually turn out to be damaged Windows files, and what has often been reported as a fix is to boot into Windows and run chkdsk on the affected disk.

Mark Jalbert wrote:

If the volume was unmounted then the file would disappear from the users trash can.

Normally I would agree with your. But there is no getting around the fact that the system "thinks" it is in on external volume. Of course that is probably the source of the problem in the first place.

I think that drive needs to be verified with Disk Utility.