Help Deleting a File

[paws588]

I used to have a Macbook, but after two years the hard drive crash, I now have a pro. After getting the files that I needed back I went into my external hard drive that my old macbook backed up onto and tried to delete all of the old back ups so I could make room for my new computer to use. After deleting it one file is left in my trash can. It is an old back up from August and the file name ends with .inProgress. I assume that i must have disconnected my computer or something while it was backing up, but now when i try to clear the trash it says "The operation can’t be completed because the item “AGQ0qILU99QsKv” is in use." I have no idea what that item is, where it is because it doesnt show in the trash, or how to get rid of it. I have tried to secure empty trash and use a few terminal commands but nothing is working.

Also it wont let me remove it from the trash. It just copies the file rather than moving it out.

Does anyone know what I can do?

 

[MacDawg]

First things first... have you restarted your computer?

 

[paws588]

yes, I have restarted my computer and that doesnt work either... I just tried again in hopes that it would but still didn't

 

[MacDawg]

You mentioned terminal commands
Have you tried these?

rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

 

[evarian]

plug it back into your old mac, then empty trash with it plugged in... try that

 

[surflordca]

If you don't want anything on the drive, did you try to reformat?

 

[paws588]

I tried both of those terminal commands, and no luck.

I cant plug it into my old laptop because the hard drive is shot and it doesnt start up, so using the old laptop is not an option

And there are other files on there that I need so I can't reformat it either.

 

[blacktop]

And there are other files on there that I need so I can't reformat it either.

perhaps, copying (transferring to another machine/HDD) said required files and then formatting...

 

[paws588]

If that is the only option, I will but it is quite a bit of information and will take a while. It is all my school work, work work, as well as movies, music, and pictures. Thanks everyone for the help

 

[Night Spring]

Have you tried all the suggestions here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1526

If those don't work, there are some utility apps that can delete stubborn files. Don't have any names handy right now, but search around in Mac utiltiy sites.