HELP, can't delete Time Machine back-ups from trash

[Brilopad1]

Alright, here's the situation. I have a 1TB external set up with 250gigs partitioned for backing up with time machine, and the rest just for storing files. My time machine partition was full so i decided to move the 5 oldest backups to the trash to make some more room. But when i went to delete trash it counted up to a couple million files and just sat there saying preparing to delete. It was never able to actually start deleting the files, it was just preparing to delete for a couple hours.

I also tried moving them back onto my harddrive but it says that i don't have enough room, which i do. so these 5 back ups are just stuck in my trash folder and i can't figure out a way to get rid of them.

So the main question is how do i delete my trash with the time machine back ups in it?

 

[GGJstudios]

Hold the Option key and empty the Trash.

 

[JustinVM]

or run this in the Terminal...

[B]rm -rf ~/.Trash[/B]

MOD NOTE: The above command was slightly modified to make it a bit safer, but you should make sure you type it in EXACTLY as above. Any extra spaces will potentially lead to disaster.

 

[Brilopad1]

Hold the Option key and empty the Trash.

Thanks, that did the trick. It took a couple hours, but it worked.

 

[nofxbandit]

or run this in the Terminal...

rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

DO NOT DO THIS! This will delete all of your files on your computer! I did this and now have to use time machine to back up all my files, settings, etc.

 

[balamw]

DO NOT DO THIS! This will delete all of your files on your computer! I did this and now have to use time machine to back up all my files, settings, etc.

It should not have done that if you typed it in exactly as written. I suspect you added a space in the wrong place so I edited the message you quoted.

B

 

[Bobstanley]

How To delete Time Machine Back up Files from trash

1. Go to finder window
2. finder menu select "empty trash" while holding down option key


should work