Unable to empty trash due to external USB HDD's locked files and no permission?

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Level 1

114 points

Unable to empty trash due to external USB HDD's locked files and no permission?

Hello.

I was doing a major cleanup with an external Seagate USB HDD due to low free disk spaces. It has two partitions/drives: FAT32 (using it for on other non-Apple machines like Windows 2000 SP4) and HFS [Time Machine only]). I threw about 30,000 items (copied from an old Windows 2000 SP4 machine's HDD with NTFS back a few years ago) from FAT32 partition/drive into the trash can. However, I am having problems emptying it. Most of them were emptied, but some were left behind.

This four years old MacBook Pro's Mac OS X 10.5.8's Trash dialog boxes said "The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for some of the items." and "Emptying the Trash cannot be completed because "<filename>" is locked. To empty everything in the Trash, including locked items, press the Options key while selecting Empty Trash". http://i.imgur.com/XFBfF.gif for the screen shots/captures of the error messages.

I tried holding Option key and emptying trash, but that didn't help/work. 😟 I used Finder to look at the files, and they had locked status. So I unlocked them which worked, but I can't delete the empty folders/directories, and these don't have locked.

What's going on and how do I empty the trash? Thank you in advance. 🙂

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 2.4 Ghz; A1260 model; 15" size.

Posted on May 28, 2012 11:59 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

238,961 points

May 28, 2012 2:30 PM in response to antdude

Hi again, are there maybe hidden files in those folders?

Show Hidden Files 1.0...

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/29096/show-hidden-files

Hidden Way is a toggle for hidden files view in Finder...

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25716/hidden-way

Show hidden files in OSX Finder

Open the Terminal and type or copy/paste:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true

Reverting to the default of NOT showing hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false

*Restart or Force Quit Finder required to take effect.*

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/developer/hiddenfiles.html

http://www.burobjorn.nl/blog/?p=96

Finder Force Quit, or restart required to take effect.

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Answer 2

May 28, 2012 2:40 PM in response to antdude

Look at these links.

You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash in Mac OS X

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106272

Solving Trash Problems

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

How To Fix Stubborn Trash and Why it Won't Delete

http://www.osxfaq.com/Tutorials/LearningCenter/HowTo/Trash/index.ws

Download Trash It! v3.6.1 from:

http://www.nonamescriptware.com/?page_id=5

Download DropNuke from:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12664

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 3

antdude Author

Level 1

114 points

May 28, 2012 2:40 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

Hi again, are there maybe hidden files in those folders?

Show Hidden Files 1.0...

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/29096/show-hidden-files

Hidden Way is a toggle for hidden files view in Finder...

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/25716/hidden-way

Show hidden files in OSX Finder

Open the Terminal and type or copy/paste:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true

Reverting to the default of NOT showing hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false

*Restart or Force Quit Finder required to take effect.*

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/developer/hiddenfiles.html

http://www.burobjorn.nl/blog/?p=96

Finder Force Quit, or restart required to take effect.

Not that I saw through Terminal's ls -all and Windows XP Pro. SP3 machine. Someone told me to try secured empty trash and it did more, but not fully.

I used the administrator (sudo) account in Mac OS X 10.5.8's Terminal to delete the trash, but it still failed:

$ sudo rm -rf *

Password:

rm: 501/2010/07252010/My Documents/My Pictures: Operation not permitted

rm: 501/2010/07252010/My Documents: Directory not empty

rm: 501/2010/07252010: Directory not empty

rm: 501/2010/01162010and05042010/My Documents/My Pictures: Operation not permitted

rm: 501/2010/01162010and05042010/My Documents: Directory not empty

rm: 501/2010/01162010and05042010/Favorites: Operation not permitted

rm: 501/2010/01162010and05042010: Directory not empty

rm: 501/2010: Directory not empty

rm: 501/06182011/My Documents/My Pictures: Operation not permitted

rm: 501/06182011/My Documents: Directory not empty

rm: 501/06182011/Favorites: Operation not permitted

rm: 501/06182011: Directory not empty

rm: 501: Directory not empty

I tried deleting this on an old, updated Windows XP Pro. SP3 machine and it had no problems! Weird. I wonder why Mac OS X 10.5.8 failed to delete it through its Finder and Terminal (sudo rm -rf command).

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