Cannot delete/rename/move a file from Windows with a special character

Hi all.

I'm kind of new to this string but have followed with interest as I have virtually the sam problem. I have a backup file with "In␀rementa" in the name. By booting into Yosemite I have removed this ice from all my drives except the main Mac HD drive. Here, it is in the Trash, and when I boot to another drive, I cannot see the Trash folder on the Mac HD drive. I have tried the Go To ,Trashes/501 solution but it does not work.

How can I see the Trash folder on one drive when booting from another?

Thanks in advance

PTFR

The file that I had with an embedded null in the filename resisted every means to move it to the Trash, or remove it, until I performed the steps in my last post. Trust me when I tell you that even the Finder would not move it anywhere on, or off of the main drive, from its current location.

Other possible location for trashed files is, /Volumes/volume-name/Users/user-name/.Trash, with the underlined parts replaced by your owns.

> ,Trashes/501

Please note that, ".Trashes" and ".Trash" start with a period, not a comma, which is a traditional way to hide files/directories from normal operation on UNIX system.

If it's there...

There are more trash folders.

When booted from the start up disk, it would be in /Users/-your-user-name-/.Trash/

# example.  when booted as the startup disk.
mac $ pwd
/Users/mac
mac $ ls -lad .T*
drwx------  30 mac  staff  1.0K Feb 24 21:28 .Trash/

For things deleted when access as an external drive. Which is you example, but you typed the wrong name.

mac $ sudo bash
Password:


root # pwd
/Volumes/Backup - Mac Mini/.Trashes/501
root # ls -l
total 24
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mac   staff  6148 Feb 26 19:18 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  2141 Jan 30 14:51 mac
root # exit
exit
mac $

Just because your not booted from the disk as the started disk, it will not be moved. The path will be different.

mac $ pwd
/Volumes/Backup - Mac Mini/Users/mac/.Trash
mac $ ls -l pho*
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mac  staff    51K Dec 13 15:06 photo 1.PNG
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mac  staff   101K Dec 13 15:06 photo 2.PNG
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mac  staff    61K Dec 13 15:06 photo 3.PNG
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mac  staff   125K Dec 13 15:06 photo 4.PNG
mac $

The trash is a hidden folder to see do from the terminal /Applications/Utilities/Termainal.

# Show hidden files & folders in finder
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE   ;killall Finder
# Normal display.  Hide hidden files & folders in finder
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE  ;killall Finder
mac $

Thanks rccharles

The instructions for revealing hidden files through terminal worked. I was then able to boot from a Yosemite drive, see the Trash folder on my El Capitan drive, and delete the "In␀rementa" file - FINALLY!!

Thanks for all your help

Way to go!

R

This solution only works on older machines that can boot in Yosemite, for those of us who made the mistake of buying another mac, the solution is to reformat the disk, use my original disk image and a partial restore from time machine.

UGH, hours of work to delete a file that could have been deleted in seconds using any previous MAC operating system.

PC's are looking better with each new version of OSX.

It would seem to me that one can either boot from Recovery on an El Capitan machine, drop into the Terminal, and follow the steps presented here to remove the file, or download El Capitan from the App Store, build a bootable USB stick from it, and once booted, use its Terminal solution to remove the file in question. This solution should not be limited to Yosemite.

Yes, it would seem like that would should work.

Too bad it doesn't.

I've got 4 different ways to boot into El Capitan, including a USB stick. Doesn't how you boot into it, if your in El Capitan you won't be able to delete these files in Terminal or the GUI.

Word of advice. If you don't have a disk image and a current time capsule or other backup, you'll be stuck re-installing all your software since the only solution to this in El Capitan is reformatting your drive or booting into another operating system ( if available).

I tried removing the user, but the system couldn't remove the user with the file in the users trash.

Just a quick aside note, since the trash is user based I thought I would just create a new user account and delete the old user account. Ya can't do that either, it won't let you delete a user account with the bad filenames in the users trash.

HI! Having the same problem here, trying to avoid the full-restore from Time Machine backup.

Will try this soon. Thanks, for now.

Yahoo!!! It works!!!

Basically did as learnt from here, after learning a bit more on how to use the basic Terminal commands.

BTW, my "How-to" is posted in this thread.

All my problematic "Invalidargument" files are finally gone! Yippee!

Hope this works & helps others.

Thank you so much!

~ Dr.MORO