Files keep disappearing when I higlight them, and I can't delete them!

[Enaree]

It's been going on for quite some time now. I have an older Mac (10.4.11) and these mystery files just appeared one day. They have no image, just the name. When I highlight them,click, or open them they just completely disappear!!

I have tried deleting some of these mystery files, and of course I get the " the operation cannot be completed because the item "___" is in use. And I quit ALL the applications, and It STILL gives me that error message.

WORSE yet, if I click "continue" to that option it kernel panics on me!! If I click "stop" it turns all those mystery files into empty folders?? And even then I still cannot delete them cause of the kernel panic that will inevitably happen.

But I REALLY need to empty the trash, cause it's giving me that startup disk is almost full message... And no, there arrent any huge files in the trash or anything. Just a few mp3s and failed downloads of PDFs.

So does anyone know what the problem
Might be??? Or how to fix it?

 

[jbarley]

Have you tried Finder->Secure empty trash?

 

[Enaree]

Have you tried Finder->Secure empty trash?

Yes. Many times. Even so I still get that same error. OR it will just flat out kernel panic. I'm unsure if I want to touch the terminal though.. As I don't know what will happen because of these weird files.

 

[QSDP-User]

I wonder... "failed downloads" in the trash might mean incomplete downloads still trying to resume,
thus "the item is still in use" error.
....and thus the constant appearance of those "mystery files".

Does the Activity Monitor utility show any strange ongoing process or cpu hog that you can Force Quit?
It would seem that quitting/restarting the Mac would terminate a download unless
the download app's preferences would prioritize resuming.

Regarding emptying the trash, a shot in the dark:
Have you ever used Titanium's free utility, Onyx?
There's a version for 10.4.11

Don't know if you can download or install anything in your affected Mac, but once installed,
Onyx can clean out caches, empty trash, repair permissions, etc.
After verifying boot HD & owner password, Onyx is ready to task.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/download/104/OnyX.dmg