08-05-2010, 03:51 PM

I've now learned my lesson! I have 1,110,471 items in the trash can that can't be deleted. These are because I dragged an occasional Time Machine back up into it when I was learning about the external hard drives. It's also because of some miscellaneous Windows files hanging around in the Trash Can. I've read enough to try Trash It, but, it didn't work with the data in the Trash Can. I've also read about trying the Option key and emptying the Trash Can. I've also read about booting in safe mode and emptying the Trash Can. None of these seem to work for me! I've place the computer in never Sleep mode and never turn off the Hard Discs! I've tried everything I can seem to relate between the old world of MS-DOS and MAC and can't get the Trash Can emptied. Since I'm a neurotic that needs to see an empty Trash Can, can anybody help with my peculiar situation?

Thanks in advance,
Arthur

08-05-2010, 04:02 PM

Are you able to move all the items out of the trash can into a folder on the desktop, then maybe move a handful of items to the trash and delete them? Then move a handful more to the trash and delete those items? And so on and so on until they are all deleted?
The first thing I would have tried is Restart and then Secure Empty Trash Can.

08-05-2010, 04:09 PM

When you right-click the Trash can and select Empty Trash, do you get any message? If so, what is it?

08-05-2010, 09:29 PM

Or you can try
Download Trash It! for Mac - Force-empty your trash can. MacUpdate Mac Software Downloads!

08-06-2010, 09:18 PM

Thank you for all the help. I've tried almost everything suggested, but, this option -

Originally Posted by MYmacROX

Are you able to move all the items out of the trash can into a folder on the desktop, then maybe move a handful of items to the trash and delete them? Then move a handful more to the trash and delete those items? And so on and so on until they are all deleted?
The first thing I would have tried is Restart and then Secure Empty Trash Can.

- I hadn't thought of. I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Thanks guys, you are a lot of help to the newbies to the MAC world and I'm learning a lot now that I've switched. I'll never go back!

Arthur

08-06-2010, 09:28 PM

So far the only thing I've been able to do is copy and paste and then delete the originals. That's how my Trash Can got so stuffed in the first place. Dragging and dropping doesn't seem to work since that does a copy and leaves the original in place. That's the command that's a mystery to me and will eliminate over stuffing the Trash Can. Since I don't know how to "move" a file at the moment I can't get things from the Trash Can to the file on my desktop at the moment.

Any suggestions?

Arthur

08-06-2010, 09:42 PM

You move a file by dragging it to the new location.

All this applies during dragging a file to a different location.

A green + under the pointer means that the file will be copied.
If the pointer does not have a green + under it when dragging a file, it means the file will be moved.

If you want to copy a file and you don't have a green + under your pointer, hold down the option key to copy the file.
If you just want to move a file and Mac seems to insist that it copies it (green + under pointer) hold down the command key to force it to be moved instead of copied.