trash Can wont empty

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EJT501


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i emptied some old back ups into the trash can, and it wont empty them, but when the drive is disconnected its not in the can anymore.
 
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True Bassist


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Hold cmd when emptying the trash which will allow you to Secure Empty it.
 
EvenStranger

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Every volume has it's own trash file, and if anything is in them, when they mount, the trash can will show it has something in it. As you've already figured out, if an external drive has something in the trash, and you unmount the drive, the trash disappears as well - but it's still on the external drive, ready to pop up again when you reconnect.
 
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EJT501


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EvenStranger said:
Every volume has it's own trash file, and if anything is in them, when they mount, the trash can will show it has something in it. As you've already figured out, if an external drive has something in the trash, and you unmount the drive, the trash disappears as well - but it's still on the external drive, ready to pop up again when you reconnect.
Click to expand...

so what do i do about it?
 
vansmith

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Plug in the external and then empty your Trash. If that doesn't work, what error message are you getting?
 
vansmith

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We'll do this the command line way. Open up /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app and paste in the following:
Code: 
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*
Enter your password (you won't be able to see it) and press enter.
 
harryb2448

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Trash has to be emptied whilst the external is connected. If no joy do a reboot with external still connected. Keep us posted?
 
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EJT501


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i've got it to let me put in password but this is what came up and it still errored.

Screen shot 2011-01-24 at 3.44.15 PM.png
 

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