External Hard Drive Problem?

[brian09223]

I have an iMac with a 2gb G-Drive External Hard Drive. I use it for photos with my Lightroom. I hadn't emptied my trash in ages so I went about emptying it and a problem arose. It started listing items in the trash as it was going, but it kept on going. I let it keep going and it went on for two days till I stopped it. It started stopping with a warning some folder was in use, did I want to delete or skip. It said there was over 30 million items in the trash. When I unplugged the external drive and emptied there trash again there was no problem, so I have an external hard drive problem. I don't understand what happen. I know I will have to re-format the drive. The question I have is , is the folder where I have my photo's corrupted or is it the drive. I have over 40 thousand photo's in my drive and I can't loose them. Any ideas or help will be appreciated.

 

[brian09223]

The Delete Trash icon has stopped counting forward somewhere after 30 million and is now counting backwards. Does this mean it is actually deleting the trash?

 

[Slydude]

That's often what it means but that file count seems really high. How many files do you really think there are that need to be deleted.

 

[brian09223]

I have no idea. I've deleted a lot of pictures over the years, but not 30 million. The punter was just spinning up when it was going positive. No it's going backwards it has really slowed down. It will probably take a week to get to zero. It's still stoping occasionally about a file being open.

 

[IWT]

@brian

Welcome.

A few points. Your External Hard Drive (EHD) has its own Trash, by which I mean, if you "unplug" the EHD - (I hope you really meant unmounted & ejected properly) - your Mac's Trash would appear to be empty. But on remounting the EHD, the Trash would reappear.

You have to empty the trash whilst the EHD is mounted ("plugged in").

It is perfectly normal practice for the Trash to indicate a rising number of files to be deleted, and this can take a long time.

When all the files are in Trash, the count then diminishes as each is deleted. And, yes, if it thinks a file is in use, you will be asked to delete or skip.

This whole behaviour seems entirely normal when there are so many files to delete.

A question for you - must you keep some of the files on the EHD? In other words, do these same files exist elsewhere? Because it would be vastly quicker to reformat the EHD; but that would wipe all files off the EHD.

Ian

 

[brian09223]

Thanks for the response Ian. I do not have these files on another hard drive. Even though the drive is deleting I think I'm gong to have to re-format the drive. Since it started deleting files last night around 7pm it is just coming up on 1 million files deleted. at this ratite will take over a week or more to finish. It will stop and ask questions about a file in use when I'm not here so it will be delayed even further. I just don't understand how the trash got so full. I am going to get a bigger drive(This on is 2GB) and transfer my pictures to it.

 

[ferrarr]

I hope you mean 2TB, and not 2GB? Do you have a backup of this drive? On a separate disk drive, either using Time Machine, clone software, or even just drag (copy) & drop (paste)?

Also, are these files that were deleted using an App or using Finder? The reason I ask is, because if you were using iPhoto, and trashed these images, then emptied iPhoto trash, any work you "touched up" in iPhoto may have generated another image (file) that is also being deleted?

 

[brian09223]

I hope you mean 2TB, and not 2GB? Do you have a backup of this drive? On a separate disk drive, either using Time Machine, clone software, or even just drag (copy) & drop (paste)?

Also, are these files that were deleted using an App or using Finder? The reason I ask is, because if you were using iPhoto, and trashed these images, then emptied iPhoto trash, any work you "touched up" in iPhoto may have generated another image (file) that is also being deleted?

Sorry, I meant 2TB. I do not have a back-up of this drive at this time. I have my photos backed up o n another drive. The EHD has only my Lightroom folders on it. When the delete stops to say a file is being used do I want to continue, that comes up in Finder.

 

[ferrarr]

Sorry, I meant 2TB. I do not have a back-up of this drive at this time. I have my photos backed up o n another drive. The EHD has only my Lightroom folders on it. When the delete stops to say a file is being used do I want to continue, that comes up in Finder.

When you deleted the files originally, did you do it while in Finder, or from within Lightroom?

 

[brian09223]

From within Lightroom.

 

[chscag]

From within Lightroom.

Lightroom has two methods of removing photo files: One method removes the photo from its library but leaves the file on your hard drive, the other method removes the file permenantly from your hard drive. Which method did you use?

(Sounds like you used the first method.)

 

[brian09223]

Remove permanently from the hard drive

 

[chscag]

If you removed those files permanently from the hard drive in Lightroom, then I don't understand your first post at all where you said you haven't emptied the trash in ages? Isn't that what removing from the hard drive does? ;D

 

[ferrarr]

I "assume" removing the files from the hard drive, just means moving them to the Trash. That's what iTunes does when it asks if you want to delete the files.

 

[chscag]

Sorry, but removing files from the hard drive means just that... they're gone. Moving files to the Trash does not remove them from the hard drive. And Lightroom works just like Photos and the older iPhoto, whereas the photo files get removed from the application library but are not permenantly removed from the hard drive, hence, no space is given up.

And yes, iTunes likewise gives you a choice of removing them from the iTunes library but can leave the files intact on the hard drive in case you want to use them later on.

 

[brian09223]

I permanetly deleted from the Hard Drive, that's why I don't understand why the trash is so full. I've done something wrong and don't know what.
One question I have, what is the advantage of the Thunderbolt Drive over the USB Drive.

 

[brian09223]

I'm a dope, I've solved the problem of why my EHD trash is so full. My Time Machine is on this drive and I've deleted old backups on this drive, that's my problem.
I'm going to buy a new EHD Drive this weekend and I need opinions. I can get a G-Drive USB 6TB with a transfer rate of 245 MB/Sec or a G-Drive Thunderbolt 4TB with a transfer rate of 165 MB/Sec for $299.00.

 

[chscag]

One question I have, what is the advantage of the Thunderbolt Drive over the USB Drive.

Speed! Faster transfer rates.

And thanks for getting back about your problem with the Time Machine backups. That makes more sense than what you were saying in your first post which is why I had a hard time understanding how you could have so many files to delete.