| This is the third time I've tried to post this over the past few days...
Give these instructions a try.
Emptying the Trash
In some circumstances, folders for which you do not have write
permission can end up in the Trash; and you will not be able to
delete them or the files contained in them. Remember that in Mac OS X
there is not a single Trash folder. Instead, each user has a Trash
folder in the Home directory (named ".Trash"). There is also a Trash
folder for the startup volume, and Trash folders for other volumes or
disks. When a user throws away a file on a local non-startup volume,
the name of the folder on that volume is "/.Trashes/UID", where UID
is the user ID number of the user (which may be seen in NetInfo
Manager). In either case, all Trash folders are hidden from the user
in the Finder. In these situations you can either start up into Mac
OS 9 to locate the files and delete them, or you can use the Terminal
application. Issues with emptying the Trash are much less likely to
occur in Mac OS X 10.2 or later, since the Finder empties the Trash
as the root user. However, issues may still occur with files on
remote volumes for which your local root user has no special
privileges.
Warning: Typographical error or misuse of the "rm -rf" command can
result in severe data loss. Insertion of a space in the wrong place
could result in the complete deletion of data on your hard disk, for
example. You may wish to copy and paste the commands below into a
text editor to verify spacing. Follow these steps to delete Trash
for the logged-in user:
1. Open the Terminal application.
2. Type: sudo rm -rf
Note: Type a space after "-rf". The command does not work without the
space. Do not press Return until Step 6.
3. Open your Trash.
4. Choose Select All from the Edit menu.
5. Drag all of your Trash into the Terminal window. This causes the
Terminal window to automatically fill in the name and location of
each item in your Trash.
6. Press Return.
All of the items in your Trash are deleted. As an alternative method,
you may execute these commands. The second and third commands will
delete Trash belonging to other users. The commands are:
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/
sudo rm -rf /.Trashes/
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/<volumename>/.Trashes/
Respectively, this permanently deletes all files in the current
user's Trash, the startup volume Trash, and the Trash for other
volumes (if any). These commands cannot delete locked files. To
unlock locked files, see technical document 106272: " Mac OS X: About
Trash, Deleting Locked Files ".
Note: The sudo command can be used to temporarily obtain super user
status and change permissions on files that otherwise could not be
changed. However it is only available if you are logged in as an
Admin user, and it requires an Admin user password for authentication.  |