Help please !! [Copied 35000 photos to Desktop]

[Neeley]

I have copied 35000 photos from my I mac Hard drive to an external drive and have backed that up to another external drive. I went to delete the original photos from from my hard drive, missed the trash can and inadvertently dropped them onto the desktop. I couldn't then stop them from copying to the desktop so I cut the power and re booted but the computer continued to copy from where it had left off. The computer has now completely frozen with 35000 photos on the desktop and I am unable to do anything, even shut down the computer. I would be most grateful,if anyone could offer any suggestion that might help, many thanks in advance.

 

[hfg]

Enjoy your new desktop wallpaper?

You should be able to shut down the computer by pressing and holding the power button on the back. Then try rebooting and see if it runs so that you can clean up the desktop with Finder (don't delete them all at once!).

If you have another external boot drive you might use that to boot and then clean up the mess.

If you can start the iMac in Target Disk mode and have another Mac laptop/desktop you could connect them (you don't mention which version iMac you have) with FireWire or Thunderbolt cables, then again clean up the mess.

Or ... restore your system backup from TimeMachine or clone ... whichever you have.

Good luck ...

 

[aliensporebomb]

THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND? I think hfg has the most realistic choice here.

 

[dangerfish]

⌘A > Delete

 

[Neeley]

Thanks all for the suggestions. The problem I have is that everything is frozen, nothing works. I have shut down and re booted using the back button only to come back to the exact same place. The mouse pointer moves but when clicked nothing happens so I can't get into time machine, or anything else for that matter. I also only have the one mac.On the basis that I cannot access anything through the mouse I have a major problem and am not sure where to go from here, any further suggestions would be extremely welcomed, many thanks again for trying to help.

 

[Gav2k]

When you say frozen is it still trying to copy?

 

[Neeley]

Thanks for replying Gav, no I think it's done the copy, it was churning away all night but all seems quiet with it now, it boots up fairly quick, but will just not allow me to access anything, the size of the file that it has copied is about 650GB

 

[Gav2k]

Can you open finder?

 

[Neeley]

Can't open finder, can't open anything, everything is frozen, just comes up the same after every reboot.

 

[Gav2k]

Easiest thing to do is boot in safe mode.

Power your Mac off. Hold shift and boot once you see the Apple logo release the shift key. It'll take a little longer than normal to boot.

Once booted log in and open finder. Hi light all the files in the desktop folder you wish to delete and delete them. Empty trash and reboot.

 

[throAU]

Open terminal
cd desktop
rm *.jpg
(if they're jpegs)
rm *.png
rm *.tiff

 

[Neeley]

Many thanks to all who helped, I've managed to get into it via safe mode, thanks again, couldn't have done it without your help,

Regards

Mike Neale

 

[jacom700]

Great site this. People very helpful.

 

[Ticocg59]

Very good info, good fix..