Unable to delete files?

[Colyflower]

I wondered if anyone could help me. My mum is donating her old snow i-mac to a local school and wanted delete the personal files she's had stored on the hard drive but it won't allow her to delete anything, everytime we try and drag anything to the trash it comes up with an error message saying that it 'cannot be moved to the trash because it cannot be deleted'.

I've tried deleting some jpgs and they will delete ok but Word documents and old Quark documents won't delete. I've checked if the individual files are locked but they're not, does anyone have any idea why we can't delete these files or if anyone knows of another way we can try.

The i-mac is running on OSX 10.2.3

Any help much appreciated, thanks

C

 

[Collin Bl]

Just sorted the same on a 500 iMac. Here is the steps i did;
Go into Sys Prefs/Accounts and Add another User with Admin box checked and uncheck auto login. Add new User 'School or whatever' Then shut down and power on and select New User to log into then you can Delete your Mums account in Sys Prefs/Accounts - hunt for it later as it is saved to HD then delete folder.
Then go here and download 10.2.8 and install that then run software update - in Sys Prefs/Updates - as many time as needed to get the latest of everything. Then when you send it to the school include the Jaguar Discs for sorting future drama. Then they should be good to go.

Then i bought this on line so it can be wireless if need be - http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=264315378 my guess the 600 would have the holder, antenna lead and socket - if that is desirable then just have a look in the trap door underneath to see if it set for that.

Oops - just realised i have assumed it is a 600 - it may not be, so be sure to check the Airport bit if you are heading that way.

 

[Collin Bl]

Addendum: to delete your Mums info;
go into HD/Deleted Users folder and select Mums.dmg Go to File menu and Get Info and in window that opens select Ownership & Permissions and click little padlock to unlock it.
then select Owner to School and Access to Read and Write then click Apply to enclosed items.
That will allow you to drag Mums.dmg to Trash and empty Trash and it is all gone.