Help deleting NTFS files from an external HDD.

Hi there, I'm a newer mac user and I'm having a bit of a problem deleting some files from my external hdd.

See, up until now I've been using my external on my XP device, and using my mac for browsing and whatnot. The other day though, my pc crashed and I've since been using my external on my mac (I'm running an older power pc G5 model w/10.5.2).

While going through and organizing my files, I moved some of them from the external to the trash. And therein lies the rub, as most (if not all) of these files are locked (I later learned that it was because they were in NTFS format).

What I'd like to know is, is there anyway (program, or even a command line in the terminal) to delete these locked NTFS files from my trash.

I'm not a total mac newbie, however, I'm by no means proficient. I also downloaded and installed "mac-fuse" from google, however as I'm not actually looking to mod a partition, it was of little use.

Thanks in advance, and I apologize for the long winded post.

jjcyber said:

Hi there, I'm a newer mac user and I'm having a bit of a problem deleting some files from my external hdd.

See, up until now I've been using my external on my XP device, and using my mac for browsing and whatnot. The other day though, my pc crashed and I've since been using my external on my mac (I'm running an older power pc G5 model w/10.5.2).

While going through and organizing my files, I moved some of them from the external to the trash. And therein lies the rub, as most (if not all) of these files are locked (I later learned that it was because they were in NTFS format).

What I'd like to know is, is there anyway (program, or even a command line in the terminal) to delete these locked NTFS files from my trash.

I'm not a total mac newbie, however, I'm by no means proficient. I also downloaded and installed "mac-fuse" from google, however as I'm not actually looking to mod a partition, it was of little use.

Thanks in advance, and I apologize for the long winded post.

Click to expand...

Whenever you attach an external HDD to a Mac running OS X it creates hidden files and folders on the external. One of those folders is "trash". I think what you're seeing is on the external drive not your Mac.

As a test, when you remove the external drive, do the files still show up in trash?

Anyway, I believe you may be able to get rid of them by formatting the external.

Regards.

Well, because NTFS is a windows format, it is "read only" which probably restricts you from deleting off it as well I'm assuming. There are some programs so you can read and write to a NTFS drive on a mac but I HIGHLY recommend staying away from this...I was in a similar situation last week and the NTFS drive ended up creating corrupt files and I lost 13 thousand mp3s!!!!! Good thing I could get them back on my comp from my iPod. I would recommend backing the files up on your computer (since it is read only, you could drag the files from the drive to your computer) and then reformat the drive in mac format HFS+ (through disk utility) and then put the files on it again. The disadvantage is, your pc won't be able to read/write to this drive...but after doing a LOT of research...this seems to be the only stable way to do things. Also, if you use time machine, even if it appears to backup your NTFS drive (I thought it was for mine), it isn't...it only works with HFS+ drives.

Good luck