Strange File In Trash

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I have recently noticed a random strange file appearing in my Trash on startup:

strangefileintrash.png


It doesn't delete when I empty the trash, but when I pressed Command + I to get information, it disappeared.

When I restarted, the file appeared again, but disappeared when I got information again.

Does anybody know what the file is or how I can stop it appearing?

I did perform a firmware update on my MacBook Pro before, could that be related?

Thanks in advance.
 
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It has now just appeared earlier without restarting.

A google search brings up nothing. Any ideas here?
 
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Tried repairing permissions, but it's still appearing.

If I view the trash in detail view, it is an alias, and is Zero KB in size.
 
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Tried repairing permissions, but it's still appearing.

If I view the trash in detail view, it is an alias, and is Zero KB in size.

Not sure if I'll know the answer to this one... but can you find the file via the terminal and run the command 'ls -al' in the directory of that file and paste the output?
 
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Same Here ...

Having the same problem but with a slightly different file name.

Cannot see it let alone delete it via the terminal. However, via the "ls -la" command in terminal I can see other files that I have deleted that no longer show up if I click on the trash can on my dock.

Very strange. System is completely up to date.

David

screen-capture.png
 
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I too have this issue on one of my Macs. I can tell you that it happened when I had to force power off the machine. It booted up fine and on login I noticed my trash said there was something in it.

I have also had a few other bugs with my Macbook. Out of curiosity, was 10.5 an upgrade or did it come preloaded on your Macs?
 
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I too have this issue on one of my Macs. I can tell you that it happened when I had to force power off the machine. It booted up fine and on login I noticed my trash said there was something in it.

I have also had a few other bugs with my Macbook. Out of curiosity, was 10.5 an upgrade or did it come preloaded on your Macs?

I bought my iMac last December or very early January. It had the 10.5 upgrade disk in the box.

You know, you may be on to something here. I had to force power off my machine the other day. Just had to start doing that about 1 out of every three times recently, since the 10.5.3 upgrade.

Onyx won't fix it (doesn't even see it), I'm letting Tech Tool Plus do a complete surface scan. Maybe it will find and fix something ...

David
 
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One Step Closer ...

I have a dual-boot configuration here, I have Windows XP loaded via Boot Camp.

My WinXP partition is VFAT so I can easily transfer files back and forth.

If I unmount my WinXP partition (it's on my desktop) the "phantom" file in my trash disappears.

I'm considering removing the WinXP partition, I've successfully replaced my "necessary" Windows programs with Mac programs but first I will try to repair it just out of curiosity to see if I can.

Do you have a similar situation there?

David
 
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Ok, do a ls -ali on that dir and post it here.
 
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I can tell you that it happened when I had to force power off the machine. It booted up fine and on login I noticed my trash said there was something in it.

Out of curiosity, was 10.5 an upgrade or did it come preloaded on your Macs?

It was an upgrade, but I used disk utility to completely erase my Tiger installation before installing Leopard.

I do remember that my MBP froze whilst shutting down when at the Apple store before installing the firmware update, so the Genius had to force a shut down by holding the power button. Upon booting, I didn't notice whether the file was there or not.

If I unmount my WinXP partition (it's on my desktop) the "phantom" file in my trash disappears...Do you have a similar situation there?
David

I have just tried ejecting my Windows XP partition and the file seems to have disappeared!

I also have my XP partition as FAT32 and access it via Bootcamp and Parallels (although I haven't used XP for a while on either method, and never seen the file in trash before when using XP).

Ok, do a ls -ali on that dir and post it here.

How would I select the directory? Typing it into terminal on its own shows files in my user folder.
 
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do a ls -ali ~/.Trash
 
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OK, here it is:

trash_terminal.png
 
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well, wonder if it'd have shown before ejecting your windows partition.. every time I've seen someone complain about this they've had windows partitions though.
 
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try option empty trash.

This will force empty.
 
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Ah Yes ...

do a ls -ali ~/.Trash

... brings back my Linux days!

I removed my unused Windows XP partition and no more phantom file, even after a shutdown and restart (a few hours later).

It was fortunate I could do this as I no longer used nor needed the "Windows side".

Best of luck to anyone who has to keep theirs.

David
 
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well, if the ls -ali shows something, the first column should be the inode.

Like such.
Code:
mikeMbp:test1 mike$ ls -li
total 6336
8571960 -rw-r--r--@ 1 mike  staff  335933 May  4 21:27 00448_antelopecanyon_1440x900_May_4_21:27_1.jpg
8571959 -rw-r--r--@ 1 mike  staff  801575 May  5  2007 01412_fallsofclyde_1440x900_May_5_2007_2.jpg
8571958 -rw-r--r--  1 mike  staff  575967 May 10 15:42 _DSC0021_May_10_15:42_3.jpg
8571955 -rw-r--r--  1 mike  staff  426214 May 17 12:56 _DSC0076_May_17_12:56_4.jpg
8571956 -rw-r--r--  1 mike  staff  578896 May 17 12:57 _DSC0077_May_17_12:57_5.jpg
8571957 -rw-r--r--  1 mike  staff  509436 May 17 13:11 _DSC0118_May_17_13:11_6.jpg
so in this case, lets say it's I want to be rid of, I'd issue..
Code:
mikeMbp:test1 mike$ find . -inum 8571960 -exec rm -i {} \;
which would result in
Code:
remove ./00448_antelopecanyon_1440x900_May_4_21:27_1.jpg? y
mikeMbp:test1 mike$ ls
01412_fallsofclyde_1440x900_May_5_2007_2.jpg	_DSC0076_May_17_12:56_4.jpg			_DSC0118_May_17_13:11_6.jpg
_DSC0021_May_10_15:42_3.jpg			_DSC0077_May_17_12:57_5.jpg
mikeMbp:test1 mike$ ls -li
total 5672
8571959 -rw-r--r--@ 1 mike staff 801575 May 5 2007 01412_fallsofclyde_1440x900_May_5_2007_2.jpg
8571958 -rw-r--r-- 1 mike staff 575967 May 10 15:42 _DSC0021_May_10_15:42_3.jpg
8571955 -rw-r--r-- 1 mike staff 426214 May 17 12:56 _DSC0076_May_17_12:56_4.jpg
8571956 -rw-r--r-- 1 mike staff 578896 May 17 12:57 _DSC0077_May_17_12:57_5.jpg
8571957 -rw-r--r-- 1 mike staff 509436 May 17 13:11 _DSC0118_May_17_13:11_6.jpg
mikeMbp:test1 mike$
 
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wicker_man
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well, wonder if it'd have shown before ejecting your windows partition.. every time I've seen someone complain about this they've had windows partitions though.

I've tried restarting so my Windows partition is mounted and the file is present, but I get the same (albeit with different numbers and startup time/file creation date).

try option empty trash.

This will force empty.

I have tried this, but the file remains.

It was fortunate I could do this as I no longer used nor needed the "Windows side".

I use Windows for occasionally playing games, and using AutoCAD as part of my course at University, so unfortunately I can't get rid of Windows.


Dysfunction, If I enter:

Code:
mikeMbp:test1 mike$ find . -inum 8571960 -exec rm -i {} \;

into terminal, but change it to my MBP's name and change 8571960 to the first number it displays (20377610 in the example shot earlier), would that possibly work?
 
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it'll delete whatever file owns that inode.

If you want to ensure that it's the RIGHT file first just do

mikeMbp:test1 mike$ find . -inum 8571960

:)
 
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OK, tried seeing what the file is, and it comes up as:
./.Trash

Then tried the

-exec rm -i {} \;

and it says:

rm: ./.Trash: is a directory
 
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yes, you don't want to delete the ./.Trash directory :)
 

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