Trashing locked items on external hard drive

[Junglefrog]

I have an issue with trashing the items on my external hard drives.... I initially had these on a windows machine and for some reason some of the folders on the hard drives are locked. I can throw them away but then I cannot seem to empty the trash can. I've tried it with the option-delete which should - theoretically - remove locked items, but it doesn't work. I tried the secure empty trash but also no luck.
I can't think of any other way to do this. I also cannot unlock the folders prior to deleting them as I keep getting the message that I do not have sufficient authority to do this action..
I am setup as administrator and am the only one using this machine. I have a MacPro with Leopard...

I hpe someone has the answer to this annoying problem!
Thanks!

 

[Jaffa Cake]

You could try this... create new folders with the same name as the ones you want to delete, then copy them onto your hard drive or trash, wherever the locked ones currently are. Hopefully that should delete the troublesome folders and overwrite them with the new empty ones, which you can then remove without any problems.

 

[emptyCup]

I also cannot unlock the folders prior to deleting them as I keep getting the message that I do not have sufficient authority to do this action..
I am setup as administrator and am the only one using this machine. I have a MacPro with Leopard...

Have you tried giving yourself the authority to trash the files? Get Info on these files and change the ownership to you.

 

[Junglefrog]

You could try this... create new folders with the same name as the ones you want to delete, then copy them onto your hard drive or trash, wherever the locked ones currently are. Hopefully that should delete the troublesome folders and overwrite them with the new empty ones, which you can then remove without any problems.

That doesn't work as it just adds the additional folder to the trash without overwriting the previous one... Just tried it twice... Apparently the 'overwrite' functionality doesn't work in the trash can?

 

[Junglefrog]

Have you tried giving yourself the authority to trash the files? Get Info on these files and change the ownership to you.

I already have read and write acces to the files so it should work but it doesn't... Once they are locked I cannot remove the lock. In the menu you see the unlock item-option which simply does not work on those files! I can't think of any other way to give myself authority to remove the files...

 

[OllyW]

Try plugging the hard drive into a PC running Windows and then delete the files.

 

[bor99e]

locked files in trash

yeah, im having the same prob.
Just got rid of my PC, so can i get rid of it on my mac?
Not hard to find a PC but does this work?
Man, i hate seeing my PC user mates for help

 

[merl1n]

You can delete these from the trash by using the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/yourdiskname/.Trashes/501/* (hit a return key)

That should empty your trash, even for locked files.