Emptying Trash (Files from External)

[jotade11]

Hello all!

I have been using Time Machine to backup my MacBook Pro, and today, my handy little Passport drive ran out of space so I dragged my folder, from my external image, to my Trash. When I emptied it, I got an error message (Code -8003) seen here:

It is around 350 GBs or so, and I have deleted the folder once before, without any issues. What am I doing wrong and how can I empty the trash here?

Thanks!
-JD

P.S. I also browsed through Console, but with my basic knowledge of it, didn't see any messages pertaining to it.

 

[rprebel]

A utility called Trash It works...apparently.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10463100

 

[jotade11]

Thanks for the recommendation! It might just be the sheer size of my Trash, but I have had TrashIt running for 10 minutes, and it still says "Unlocking Volume Trash", like it did as soon as I launched. Any other ideas?

 

[rprebel]

Holding down the Option key while selecting Empty Trash usually works when there's an issue with locked files.

 

[jotade11]

That's what I always do just to avoid the "Are you sure you want to empty the Trash?" pop-up. Thanks again, but no dice

 

[rprebel]

Well, you got me

Side note: You can stop that annoying "Are you sure" message in the Finder preferences.

 

[jotade11]

Well, thanks so much for the help and that little tip! At least I am spared the misery of holding down the option key

 

[jotade11]

Problem Solved!... here's how:

Ok,
I fixed my problem now. Neither a custom AppleScript trash nuke, nor Trash It (which accurately describes what to do with the application... all it ever did for me was make a satisfying 'ding' and tell me the Trash was empty when, in fact, it was not) could fix my trash emptying woes, but I found this article which helped me solve it.

If anyone comes upon this thread who has my same problem, what you should do is shutdown or restart your computer. Then, when the screen is black and the computer is off, hold down the left-shift button, as your computer starts up (pressing the power button if necessary). This will put your computer into safe mode, here's an article about what exactly Safe Mode is, if you don't already know. From there, you log in and empty your trash, and it should not give you any problem, other than a bit of a wait, depending on the size of the files you are deleting.

Hope this helps!