Strange files in Trash

Imac issue. There are three "strange" files in my Trash. I have no idea how they got there.

They have no readable names, just a bunch of characters. All three show 0 KB in size.

Two of them are listed as "Alias" and one is listed as an "Unix Executable" file.

When I try to delete them, I get a warning box with three options:

- Cancel

- Remove Unlocked Items

- Remove All Items

No matter what I try, they cannot be deleted.

What is going on?

Select "Secure Empty Trash" from the FINDER Menu and they should delete.

baggss said:

Select "Secure Empty Trash" from the FINDER Menu and they should delete.

Click to expand...

Sorry, no help. Exact same thing occurs.

You can try two things. First, check the files in there by holding down command (  ) and clicking on the items. Click on "Get Info" and check to see if the "Locked" box is checked on any of the files. If it is, un-check it! Do the same thing for the other files.



Then try emptying the trash.

If that doesn't work, force empty the trash by following these steps from The X Lab.

Press and hold the mouse button on the Trash icon in the Dock. The context menu for Trash will display.

1) Press and hold the Option key.
2) Select Empty Trash from the context menu for Trash.
3) Release the Option key.

Click to expand...

Moss said:

You can try two things. First, check the files in there by holding down command (  ) and clicking on the items. Click on "Get Info" and check to see if the "Locked" box is checked on any of the files. If it is, un-check it! Do the same thing for the other files.

If that doesn't work, force empty the trash by following these steps from The X Lab.

Click to expand...

Got rid of the "Unix Executable" file using the "Get Info". Thanks.

Neither suggestion works with the other two files.

Tried changing the name of the both remaining files using "Get Info", but it comes up with an error (-43) and won't let me modify its name.

Re-boot the machine.

Hold down Option when you empty trash.

No help on a reboot or holding down the Option key when I try to empty the trash.

Open up a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) and type the following: It will ask for your password - just type it in and press enter. When you're typing your password, it will appear as if nothing is being typed - this is normal.

vansmith said:

Open up a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) and type the following:

Code:

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

It will ask for your password - just type it in and press enter. When you're typing your password, it will appear as if nothing is being typed - this is normal.

Click to expand...

Here's the copy & paste:

Last login: Sat Apr 30 19:42:33 on console
Arthur-Mounts-iMac:~ arthurmount$ sudo rm -fr ~/.Trash/*
Password:
Arthur-Mounts-iMac:~ arthurmount$

Is something else supposed to occur? This doesn't fix it . . . even after a reboot.

You don't want anything printed back so it would appear that the command has been executed properly. Do the files disappear at all?

vansmith said:

You don't want anything printed back so it would appear that the command has been executed properly. Do the files disappear at all?

Click to expand...

Files are still there. Could there be another step?

The rm command I gave you should remove anything you tell it to (in this case, everything in your Trash). It executed successfully so I'm tempted to say that the files are being recreated. I'm out of ideas right now but I'll get back to you if I think of something.

vansmith said:

The rm command I gave you should remove anything you tell it to (in this case, everything in your Trash). It executed successfully so I'm tempted to say that the files are being recreated. I'm out of ideas right now but I'll get back to you if I think of something.

Click to expand...

I was out of ideas 6 messages ago.

Thanks, I'll check tomorrow.

If the files are still showing up in Finder try this: in Terminal type...
ls -la ~/.Trash
Do they still show up? If not try clearing the caches using something like Onyx or Applejack, and rebooting.

cradom said:

If the files are still showing up in Finder try this: in Terminal type...
ls -la ~/.Trash
Do they still show up? If not try clearing the caches using something like Onyx or Applejack, and rebooting.

Click to expand...

I'm assuming that the first character in the following is a lower case "L" as in lima? "ls -la"

Anyway, this is what it looks like . . . as you can see I did it twice.

Last login: Sun May 1 11:17:20 on ttys000
Arthur-Mounts-iMac:~ arthurmount$ ls -la ~/.Trash
total 0
drwx------ 2 arthurmount staff 68 May 1 11:26 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 24 arthurmount staff 816 May 1 09:13 ..
Arthur-Mounts-iMac:~ arthurmount$ ls -la ~/.Trash
total 0
drwx------ 2 arthurmount staff 68 May 1 11:26 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 24 arthurmount staff 816 May 1 09:13 ..
Arthur-Mounts-iMac:~ arthurmount$

Still no help. Will do some research on Onyx or Applejack as I've never heard of either. Thanks!!

Just noticed this on both files using GET INFO

Kind: Alias

Size: Zero KB on disk (Zero bytes)

Where: /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/.Trashes/501

Looks to me like perhaps this is something in the Boot Camp area where I run Windows XP?

Ah, these are on a Bootcamp partition. The commands I gave you were for the Mac side of things. (BTW: yes those were lowercase L's, and you did it right)

Things on a Bootcamp partition "shouldn't" show up in your trash when running OS X, I don't think. Tried booting into XP and emptying trash there?

Things on a Bootcamp partition "shouldn't" show up in your trash when running OS X, I don't think. Tried booting into XP and emptying trash there?

Click to expand...

They'll show up if your Boot Camp partition is formatted to FAT-32 and you deleted files on the BC partition when in OS X. The Trash would then have to be emptied from OS X, not Windows.

Ah, learn something every day. Should have guessed something when I saw the /501 in the path.
I have Vista installed and haven't come across this before.