Folder permanently in use, unable to delete

[zyleon]

I have a folder in my external hard drive that I pulled to trash, but whenever I empty my trash, an error message would show up, stating that the folder cannot be deleted as it is currently in use.

I already deleted all the contents in the folder, I just can't seem to remove that particular folder no matter what.

How do I remove it? Please help!

 

[BlueRevolution]

Have you restarted the computer?

If you've already tried that, try opening a Terminal window and running:

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/*/.Trashes/*

Copy and paste this command into Terminal rather than typing it, as a typo could potentially erase your entire hard drive.

 

[Gregg2]

Try to trick it

Make a new folder. Put the stubborn one inside it. Then delete the new folder.

Other tricks, anyone?

 

[zyleon]

Have you restarted the computer?

If you've already tried that, try opening a Terminal window and running:

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/*/.Trashes/*

Copy and paste this command into Terminal rather than typing it, as a typo could potentially erase your entire hard drive.

this message is shown: "rm: /Volumes/PSP/.Trashes/501/deletethis: Directory not empty"

Make a new folder. Put the stubborn one inside it. Then delete the new folder.

Tried both, still doesn't work This error message still shows up. "The operation cannot be completed because the item "deletethis" is in use."

 

[angelwatt]

On this linux forum (post 8) there was the same issue and was resolved by running fsck on the drive to fix any errors on the drive.

 

[durija]

Is the drive still connected? If not, trash won't empty.

 

[forcefieldkid]

You might also want to try relaunching the finder, this worked for me when it wouldn't let me move a folder left behind after uninstalling a game to trash.

 

[Hydramus]

What angelwatt said is a good idea, this is what I usually do when I come across this error.

On a mac, boot into single user mode and run an fsck on your disk.

While booting up, hold down command-s. This should take you to single user mode. From there there will be some instructions on the screen that actually tells you what to run for an fsck. It'll be something like

/sbin/fsck -fy

Don't remember what it says exactly but that should sort it out and then you'll be able to delete it

Oh, and once that is done, you can type "reboot" to reboot your machine.

 

[zyleon]

What angelwatt said is a good idea, this is what I usually do when I come across this error.

On a mac, boot into single user mode and run an fsck on your disk.

While booting up, hold down command-s. This should take you to single user mode. From there there will be some instructions on the screen that actually tells you what to run for an fsck. It'll be something like

/sbin/fsck -fy

Don't remember what it says exactly but that should sort it out and then you'll be able to delete it

Oh, and once that is done, you can type "reboot" to reboot your machine.

It still says that file is in use. I get this nagging feeling that it's because of my psp. I have a friend who is having the same problem, but it's in an office mac.

 

[zyleon]

any other methods?