Even more stubborn Trash

18 Feb 2017 17:59:46

Michael Corgan

Somehow two System Folders arrived in the Trash and cannot be emptied because their contents or some of them, are "in use" or an error message -"error - 50"- comes up . They came from partitions on a back-up drive that had old systems - I checked using Cmd-I to discover this. Moving them out of the Trash simply duplicated them and now I have SIX System Folders in the Trash. Their only contents seem to be Color Sync profiles and delving into these reveals a single profile for a monitor that I had before I got an iMac some 7 years ago.

Has anybody any idea how to rid myself of these and also the three copies of the Display profiles now residing on the Desktop and refusing to be trashed, also shouting "error - 50" when I try.

It's getting to be a bit like The Sorcerer's Apprentice!

Re: Even more stubborn Trash

19 Feb 2017 13:43:54

Douglas Cheney

Have you tried secure empty trash it isn't available on Sierra but is on earlier OS's also highlight the file and go to file in the menu bar and click on File holding down the Alt key and you should see Delete Immediately instead of move to trash, and try that

Re: Even more stubborn Trash

19 Feb 2017 15:52:44

Tony Still

I think the Error -50 is just "In use" too. A restart may clear that for at least some of them.

You could also usefully check that you own the files: Get Info in the Finder; under Sharing & Permissions (at the bottom), the name annotated with "(Me)" shows your privileges, if it's 'Read & Write' then you should be able to delete, if not then you need to make it so (unlock the padlock, click on your existing privilege, change to 'Read & Write'. click the cogwheel, choose 'Apply to Enclosed Items').

If none of this works, this month's MacFormat suggests the following at the command line to empty the trash:
sudo rm ~/.Trash.*

As ever with sudo, be very very careful.

Re: Even more stubborn Trash

19 Feb 2017 22:50:28

Michael Corgan

I had already checked that I owned the files, and wherever necessary altered the ownership By the way,using El Capitan there was only one option on clicking on the cog wheel(having changed ownership for "Staff" to be sure), which was "Revert changes.

I have tried force deleting, but get the same error-50 message.

I shall reboot into Snow Leopard to see if I can a) see the itms in the trash, and b) Force delete them. Watch this spot

Re: Even more stubborn Trash

19 Feb 2017 23:08:10

Michael Corgan

Booted into Snow Leopard - a different Trash of course, so no unwanted files and folders there.

Will have to try your last suggestion Tony, with a trembling hand, and in daylight!