Can't delete media

Hey, all

Here's a funny little problem:

As I posted earlier, I needed to make files that my landlord could edit on her Windows Movie Maker whatever thingy. So, I captured her hour or so of video. I did it in one chunk. Not smart, I know. But, it was on VHS, and I was impatient.

Anyway, so in Quicktime, the file is some 17 GB. I went to turn it into an AVI file (WMV was going to take 25 hours). I figure, it's just going to put new headers or whatever on the video, so no need to use compression. That seems to have been a mistake. The same video as an AVI is some 90 GB. Clearly, I'll have to use some sort of compression.

In the meantime, I have a 70 GB AVI on my drive -- my computer crashed before finishing. It's a useless file that nothing can open. I moved the file to my trash.

Now, every time I go to empty my trash, my computer crashes.

I've been through the Apple OS X site. It pointed me to a page called "Solving Trash Problems." I went through all the steps on that page. I went to pages that page linked to, for especially hard issues. I tried all the different steps. I went into the Terminal, and entered lines of code. I downloaded TrashIt and Cocktail. Nothing will delete this freakin' file.

One possibility-- I may not be entering the correct string in my Terminal for a file on a media drive, as opposed to the boot drive. Does anybody know the correct string for that?

Does anybody have any other solutions? Do I have this problem because the file is so big, or for some other reason?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thank you!

> Now, every time I go to empty my trash, my computer crashes.

I've seen this problem with a computer at work, where an Empty Trash command immediately results in a kernel panic, with 100 per cent consistency.

The only permanent fix we could find was an OS re-install, and it took multiple attempts.

A few ideas for workarounds that may or may not work:

1. Can you import the file into an FCP project? If it accepts the file (unlikely), try selecting it in FCP and pressing SHIFT-D, then choosing "Delete file from disk". This might bypass the Trash.

2. What happens if you move the file back out from the Trash?

3. If it's an external drive, can you copy everything else off it to a new drive, and then reformat the drive?

Did you run out of room on the external drive while you were converting, and that's probably why FCP crashed? If so, try to free up a lot (10 GB) of space and try emptying trash again, using standard and exotic methods. You would have to be sure to do a "delete without going to trash" method to clear the space, otherwise you won't gain anything. Unfortunately, I don't know the command or key combo for that, but someone here does, I'm sure.

Scott

Here's the terminal commands, in case the previous ones you tried were confusing.

Run Terminal (from /Applications/Utilities). Type "rm -R " (without the quotes, and make sure you add the space and the capitalisation) then drag the problem folder onto the Terminal window. Press Return, and the folder should disappear.

If you get a message saying you don't have enough permission to do this, press the up arrow key. The whole command will re-appear. Run the cursor back to the beginning of the command using the left-arrow key, and type "sudo " at the beginning of the line. This time, you'll be asked for your Administrator password (which, of course, you know). Press return again, and this time the folder will definitely disappear.

If you've got Mac OS9 installed on a partition anywere, often starting up from that can give you the ability to trash stubborn files on other partitions.

I tried that, and Terminal string, and I got the following message:

rm: illegal option -- /
usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ...
unlink file

Is there something else that should be on that string?

Thank you!

ummm ok. Does the file you are trying to delete - or any of the files in the trash have an illegal character in the name? Like a slash like this '/'? Change the name of all the files to something simple like 'junk'. (No quotes)

The name of the file, which is the only one in my trash, right now, is 'volleyball'. It is an AVI file. It has no illegal characters.

Thank you!

What about the folder or drive that the file has come from? Does it have anything in its name that isn't a number or a letter? Try renaming the originating folder (or whatever) that you are trying to delete it from.

After this, it starts to get harder...

Nope. The drive name and the folder name are both very straightforward.

What's the keyboard shortcut for deleting without sending to the trash?

Thank you!

Sorry, I don't know about deleting without sending to the trash, and I'm not sure it would help in this case anyway. Have you tried Batchmod? It's got a force empty trash function.

[www.macchampion.com]

Also, try repairing your disks with First aid and Diskwarrior.

There's also another unix way
1.Drag the files you want to delete to the Trash.
2. Launch Terminal.
3.Type: <chflags -R nouchg>.
4.Press the spacebar one time.
5.Open the Trash window in the Finder, and drag all the files you want to delete to the Terminal window.
6.Press Return.

Now you can return to the Finder and empty the Trash.

I haven't used this one personally.

What I would actually do is start up from OS9 or network the computer and use the remote computer to delete the file on your computer.

Actually, reading that, did you put a space before you dragged the files to the terminal when you did tried the rm command? Try this one

1. Type "sudo rm -R " (without the quotes, and make sure you add the space and the capitalisation)
2. Press the spacebar once
3. Drag the problem folder onto the Terminal window.
4. Press Return
5. Enter password if required, press return.

And I just found this one re multiple locations:

Launch Terminal and then follow these steps:

1.Type sudo rm -R ~/.Trash/ , and press Return.
2.Type sudo rm -R /.Trashes/ , and press Return.
3.Type sudo rm -R /Volumes/drivename/.Trashes/ , and press Return. (To delete the Trash from the non startup drive. Change 'drivename' to the name of your media drive where the problem file came from.

BE VERY CAREFUL to type things exactly when using sudo in the terminal. If you have an accidental space you can delete an entire volume.

Those are the same strings I found, looking at sites dedicated to trash problems in OS X.

They make my computer crash in four languages.

When I use Disk Utility to try to "Repair Disk", I get "First Aid failed" because "The underlying task reported failure on exit."

What does that mean? Do I need to back up all 300 GB of media on that drive and reformat it? Yuck!

Thanks for your help!

Ack. That's a very bad sign. I would get the media off that drive asap.

I know it sounds like a pain, but it's better than losing the whole drive with all your work on it. It's not an external drive, is it?