I'm trying to delete files from the trash and an .InProgress file in Time Machine that cannot be moved to the trash. I cannot unmount the TM disk either. If I use the chflags -R nouchg command, I get a "Resource busy" message. Any suggestions?

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Level 1

4 points

I'm trying to delete files from the trash and an .InProgress file in Time Machine that cannot be moved to the trash. I cannot unmount the TM disk either. If I use the chflags -R nouchg command, I get a "Resource busy" message. Any suggestions?

I've got one or maybe two problems. Time Machine routinely crashes and there is a file in the TM folder that is an .InProgress file at the end of successful backups. Can't delete it, even using various sudo commands in Terminal. These come back with a "Resource busy" message.

Similarly, there is a Microsoft Office alias in my trash that will not delete, again including various delete or Terminal commands. Also "Resource busy"

I can't reformat the TM volume since it cannot unmount and it also cannot unmount the whole disk, which contains some other backup files I'd rather keep.

Any suggestions?

Mike

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8), LaCie external drive

Posted on Jul 10, 2013 9:27 PM

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Answer 1

Myke K Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 10, 2013 10:46 PM in response to Myke K

The trash problem has gone away. So this is a Time Machine issue.

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Answer 2

Aug 27, 2013 6:33 PM in response to Myke K

Can you explain how you were able to move the .inProgress file to the trash? I am having this same issue and all the other support I am seeing has to do with commands to delete the file from the trash. But, I can't even move it to the trash.

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Answer 3

Myke K Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 28, 2013 11:57 AM in response to waterjunky

I'm not sure I can be very helpful since I was doing a lot of things and ultimately the problems went away. But one thing that definitely seemed to help was to shut down, restart, do something, shut down again and repeat. So with a clean start, try to move the file to the trash. If that works, shut down restart and look to see if it is still in the trash. Empty the trash. Shut down if it appears to empty and then restart. It seemed sometimes that the computer was doing what I wanted then something was overriding this and restoring. The shutdowns immedately after I could do something but before it engaged an override operation seemed to keep this from happening.

Sorry to not have more to offer but...

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