Deleting files from an external drive in lion 10.7.3

I alluded to that in my post, i.e., that was the syntax you would use in your Terminal (shell).

The full terminal command would be,

ls -la /Volumes/volumeName/.Trashes/$UID/

If it shows nothing (other than '.' and '..') you have nothing in that .Trashes folder.

I am guessing you took me literally when I said earlier "where volumeName is the name of the mounted volume" and actually typed the word volumeName. Type the actual name of your mounted volume. If it is named, say, "dlabc563" type that for volumeName.

If you did type the proper filename and you are still getting "No such file or directory" then you typed some other part of command wrong because that syntax is correct.

But for the sake of completeness, if your volume name has some special characters in it like blanks then you need to quote the volumeName.

ls -la /Volumes/"volumeName"/.Trashes/$UID/

So if your volume name is, for example "dlabc 563" (i.e., with a space in it) you would use,

ls -la /Volumes/"dlabc 563"/.Trashes/$UID/

Note the explict quotes.

I'm not exactly sure what this exercise is about, or why...

But if you want to see the .Trashes file on an external drive the easiest way is to show all invisibles and it will be right there on the top level of the drive.

For that all you need to do is copy/paste this commnd in Terminal and press return.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles True; killall Finder

But since the output from a previous command was that the folder did not exist, I would believe it.

However you may have fun looking through the entire hidden hierarchy.

When you get tired of it...

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles False; killall Finder

dlabc563 wrote:

Yes I did type the name of the volume but did not use quotation marks if name has spaces. Do I also use quotation marks if user name has spaces in it ?

All this back and forth on a simple command line!😟

Yes, names with spaces get enclosed with quotes. There is no user name in the command I mentioned.

The first part of the syntax is it an i or an l or the number 1 ?

Sorry I am not an expert with the terminal !

It's an "ell". And it's an "ell" after the dash. Just copy/paste this: ls -la followed by a space followed by the rest.

And if that doesn't work I give up. Turn on finder invisibles as suggested above.

dlabc563 wrote:

So what is the solution . I do not understand what CT is saying ? Is it a problem with my setup or is it just the way an external drive connected to an airport extreme supposed to behave ?

The solution is NOT to delete files off that drive unless you REALLY want them GONE.

Try using the 3-4 inches between your ears before you delete something. That goes for everything not only files on that Network Attached Storage drive.

Yes it is working exactly the way it is supposed to work.

Sorry If I offended you but it is the truth.

Have a good day.