Removing backup disk files from trash

[Rogbahia]

I deleted files from an external backup disk and they won't delete or move to another location, just copy

 

[harryb2448]

Same as Windows.

When you delete files on the external, it nis necessary to Empty the Trash prior to dismounting or ejecting the external. Otherwise they just pop straight bck where they came from.

 

[Rogbahia]

Thanx, harryb, for replying. The thing is, I opened the external on my MAC, and removed a number of backups to my trash, thinking this was the logical way to trash them. And there they stay and won't delete, giving, "unexpected error code -22". If I try to remove them from the trash by dragging back to the external, they just copy from the trash.
Now my startup disk is full and trashing unused apps and moving large files to the external does't make any significant change in the startup disk.
Thanx in advance for any suggestions. Best, Roger.

 

[Rod]

Roger I hope when you are referring to "Backup Files" you are not referring to Time Machine backups. If so you have a problem. Time machine files can only be deleted using the time machine interface.
If on the other hand they are just manually backed up files then we need to tackle this in a different way.
In either case you will probably need to erase and reformat your external HD.

 

[Rogbahia]

Rod, thanks for picking up on my problem. No it's not TM, but a Seagate external. I guess the problem started with what harryb2448 wrote: "When you delete files on the external, it nis necessary to Empty the Trash prior to dismounting or ejecting the external. Otherwise they just pop straight bck where they came from". And that's exactly what is happening; when the external is disconnected the deleted files disappear from the trash and 'pop-up' again when I reconnect and no solution was offered at that time.
If you could head me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated. My whole system is really screwed since my start-up disk is almost full and deleting files doesn't make any difference e.g. I deleted apps and a file of 10GB and available space stayed the same and now I can't load anything of any size back from the external, to work on. AS you might guess, I am not good at this stuff! Best, Roger

 

[Rod]

Ok try this. With your external HD disconnected go to Disk Utility, select you mac HD click on erase and select erase free space. This might give you a little room to move.
Then go back to the first step. Connect external HD, drag whatever to trash, empty trash. Just do an item at a time to begin with. Remember you need at least 10% of you Mac HD free for it to function so you need to free up some space.

 

[Rogbahia]

Startup disk almost full

Thanks once again, Rod. I saved almost all my files to the external - which makes working a **** of a lot more tiresome - and followed your advice. Inly thing is that when I click on "erase" everything stays grey and I can't go further!
Sorry to be a bore. I just don't understand why my free space jumped from 18GB to 2.87 and now (with files removers) 7.8GB. Even with very little action during the day, the free space jumps around a couple of GB, for no apparent reason. Best Roger.

 

[MacInWin]

Ok for starters that is WAY to little free space, no matter how big the drive is. as rod said, OS X likes to have 10-15% of an HD free, 3-5% of an SSD (I don't know why the difference in media, it just is). So unless your HD is tiny, 8GB isn't enough free.

This was wrong:

No it's not TM, but a Seagate external.

Time Machine (which is software) is NOT Time Capsule (which is hardware) and it's important to know that and keep it straight. So your answer was not logical. What Rod said was, "Roger I hope when you are referring to "Backup Files" you are not referring to Time Machine backups." The reason for that statement was, as he said, that the way TM backs files up you should not use Finder or any other tool than TM to reach in and delete a backup. It messes up TM and the file structure on the drive TM is using as a device. So, you have a Seagate external drive and I suspect you are using Time Machine to make the backups. And because of that, you should not be going to that Seagate directly, but through Time Machine to do deletions. Now that you've bypassed that way, the directory of the drive is probably messed up and TM is confused. And the way to restore from the trashcan is NOT to drag the file anywhere, but to right click and choose Put Back and let the trashcan do the work properly. That is particularly so with TM backup files. They aren't really what you think they are, so manipulating them that way just makes it worse.

At this point you may be in the position of having to reformat the external (losing all your TM backups in the process) or getting a new external drive and reinitiate whichever of them you choose as a TM backup drive, let TM make a good backup again and then trying again to delete files from your internal drive. You may even be in the position where some Terminal work may be necessary to clean things up, but the commands in Terminal are pretty powerful and you don't seem to be a power user, so I would recommend you go very, very carefully into that area. Maybe a power guru like Cradom can chime in here with some command line entries that may help you empty your trash through Terminal.

 

[chscag]

Once you remove backup files from Time Machine without using the Time Machine interface (as Jake pointed out), even if you could restore from the Trash, it's too late. The Time Machine image is broken and you can't put back what was removed.

The only way is as Jake indicated, erase the drive and start over. And buy a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner and another hard drive and start to make redundant backups.

 

[Rogbahia]

Backup disk almost full

Thanks guys, but I had replied to Rod that "it is not a TM, but a Seagate external HD. CleanMyMac suddenly decided to delete the files in the trash that kept popping back up whenever I attached the external. So that was solved, but as my last two posts explain, this did not affect the "GB available"; nor did deleting almost all my working files.
Something else caused an enormous drop in "available", and I need to figure this one out.
One possible is that a big drop in GB happened when I imported a load of big file pics taken on a my Nokia Lumia. I later trashed them, but again, not difference in "available".

 

[MacInWin]

Rogbahia, I'm still confused. Again "it is not a TM, but a Seagate external HD." is illogical. That's like saying, "it is not Microsoft Word, but an HP printer." The two don't compare. TM is software that can use any brand drive, it just needs to be formatted to work. You didn't have closing quotes in your latest post, so I can't really tell where what you are saying stops quoting the previous post and starts new comments, but I would get rid of the crapware CleanMyMac. If you need a "cleaner" get Onyx. It's free and it works, and it's the ONLY thing we recommend here.

When did you import the load of big file pics, when did you trash them and are they still in the trash now? If they are, the space won't be freed up.

 

[Rod]

So to sum up, If you are Using Time Machine to back up to your Seagate ext, HD it is stuffed now. You will need to erase it using Disk Utility, format it as Mac OS extended (journaled), Call it Time Machine, select it as the drive for Time Machine Backups in Time Machine Preferences and perform a new full back up.
However you still have a system storage problem and the above will not fix that. So get yourself another external HD. As advised use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a Bootable Drive Clone of your HD. This is not difficult and we are happy to give advice on doing this should you have a problem or questions. The beauty of this is that although the drive you use for Time Machine should be a dedicated drive (nothing else but time machine) the drive you use for CCC can also be used for storage of other files. So before backing up with either TM or CCC use that drive to store some of your files to create at least 15% free space on your Mac HD. That way the backup process should go smoother.

 

[Rogbahia]

Thanks so much for sticking with my problem. I have been using TM to back up to the Seagate external (my new MacBookPro wouldn't recognise it after I switched from an old iMac). The backups are OK and I can access with no problem -just can't use the TM for that handy go back in time thingy. The real breakthrough is suggestion to use Onyx. I only use it sometimes, thinking that CleaMyMac and MacKeeper are enough. Well, I did an Onyx cleanup and besides it sticking half way through the execution, my available jumped to 49.8 GB! So, a great thanks for that.
AS an aside: MacKeeper is a pain in the neck: their ads pop up in the most unwanted places and today, twice, writing this reply and on other pages of my browser, the page suddenly goes to the MacKeeper site!
Best, Roger.

 

[Rogbahia]

Redact: (my MacBookPro wouldn't recognise MY EXTERNAL TM after I switched...)

 

[Rod]

Please remove MacKeeper from your computer entirely ASAP. This is an insidious and invasive app which can only be removed by following step by step instructions which you will find here. Uninstalling MacKeeper
Often described as malware these days MacKeeper only does one good thing in my mind and that is, remove itself.
If you do a search on this site for MacKeeper you will find numerous references to how dangerous it is and the headaches it has caused for other users some of which you may be experiencing now.
Having removed it you might also want to run AdwareMedic a DonationWare app which will scan your system for browser extensions that may be causing unwanted behaviour or popups. You can find it here; The Safe Mac » Adware Removal Guide
Cheers, Rod

 

[Rogbahia]

Thanks, Rod. Interestingly all attempts to open Adware -from your link, or direct via search- are blocked.."safari can't (this word in strange characters) find /open this page.

 

[Rod]

Thanks, Rod. Interestingly all attempts to open Adware -from your link, or direct via search- are blocked.."safari can't (this word in strange characters) find /open this page.

OK try this direct link; Buy AdwareMedic