laCie "trash" problems

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Level 1

1 points

laCie "trash" problems

I am having a rather strange problem with my laCie external hard drive. I have emptied the trash on my desktop. After doing so, if I connect my laCie hard drive, it causes (?) several thousand items which I have thrown away to "reappear" in my trash can. Also, when I try to delete these items via my desktop trash icon, it repeatedly gives me the message "the operation cannot be completed because the item 'wmphelp.htm' is locked." (That is just an example--sometimes it says a ".gif" is locked). I want to be sure that I really have deleted these items from my computer's hard drive, but now I am concerned that somehow these items are being saved on the laCie. Any ideas?

iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3) G5 60g iPod; iPod shuffle

iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.3) G5 60g iPod; iPod shuffle

Posted on Jul 11, 2006 7:14 PM

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Answer 1

sig

Level 8

35,862 points

Jul 11, 2006 7:24 PM in response to pandi

With the LaCie connected you will need to empty the trash then. When you get prompts that something is locked, select 'continue' and then open the trash and unlock the locked files.

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Answer 2

pandi Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 11, 2006 9:08 PM in response to sig

When I select "continue" the computer will not allow me to open the trash. It says that it cannot be opened while it is in use. Also, assuming I can overcome this hurdle, how do I unlock something?

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Answer 3

Niel

Community+ 2025

Level 10

741,341 points

Jul 11, 2006 9:24 PM in response to pandi

To start with, hold down the Option and Shift keys while emptying the Trash; this sometimes enables locked files and folders to be deleted.

If that doesn't work, double-click on the LaCie drive in the Finder, and then choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu. Enter .Trashes/501/ as the folder's path; if the Finder tells you that the folder can't be found, increment the number by 1, and keep going until you find a number that works. If you've reached 510 without finding a working number, open the Terminal in your /Applications/Utilities/ folder and enter 'id -u' without the quote marks. The output of this command is the number you need.

Once you've opened the folder, open the Terminal and enter 'chflags -R nouchg' without the quote marks, follow it with a space, and then drag the little icon at the top of the Finder window which contains the folder you opened into the Terminal window. Press Enter and empty the Trash again.

(14148)

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Answer 4

pandi Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 12, 2006 10:54 AM in response to Niel

That worked--thanks!

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