Can't empty trash when external drive is attached

**ziomatrixacs** · March 17th, 2008, 01:00 PM

yeeks.. you could plug it into the PC and go to My computer, right click on the drive, and it should say format some where. If you format the WD drive, it should erase EVERYTHING. It might work but it will defiantly delete all of your info on the WD drive.

I would say do it on the Mac but I do not know how, I haven't seen that option..it might be under Utilities somewhere

**ElDiabloConCaca** · March 17th, 2008, 01:09 PM

No, you couldn't even do that on Windows with that drive... the drive is in HFS+ format, so it wouldn't even mount under Windows, so right-clicking "My Computer" wouldn't even "see" the drive. You'd have to go under "Computer Manangement" to be able to format the drive that way...

...but that's just silly. They don't want to erase their entire hard drive, they simply want to rid themselves of one file that is locked and in the Trash. Erasing everything to get rid of one thing would probably rank as "the silliest thing to do."

**CharlieJ** · March 18th, 2008, 03:52 PM

Did you try my shredder idea? Trash the file you thats read only.

**spiritfoxdemon** · January 4th, 2011, 09:00 PM

Hi,
I have had a fight with my trash can
heres the details:

I pluged in my TB storage and I see that my trash is filled so I know it has sumthing to do with the storage
there are 14 files in the trash, thumb type files,and i have tried everything
even some program called trash it which made no difference

I tried going to terminal and doing the dot_clean things then I put clean and it didnt work
I also tried shutting down and restarting my mac and it still was there when my storage was plugged in
and when I drag one of the files out into my "storage drive" like one of the websites mention and this showed up "The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “Easy A [2010]” can’t be read or written.
(Error code -36)"

im at the point where I just get so angry at it that I gave up
I looked at Apple support and they gave me a bunch of things that didnt help me

I just need some mac expert to help me cuz this is just frustrating me

**DeltaMac** · January 4th, 2011, 09:08 PM

Have you tried repairing your hard drive with your Disk Utility app.

**spiritfoxdemon** · January 4th, 2011, 09:21 PM

hello
yes it says "error: Could not unmount disk"

**DeltaMac** · January 4th, 2011, 09:31 PM

Try that 2 or three times.
You may also try it while booted to your OS X installer DVD - Disk Utility will be in the Utilities menu when booted to that installer disk.
If that also doesn't work, then you can try some other good disk repair utility, such as Disk Warrior.
If that doesn't help, then you may try erasing the disk. Be sure to back up any important files.
The error -36 is an I/O error (bummers) - yes, that's the word actually used for that fault, and can mean a mechanical failure of your hard drive, or the drive electronics may be faulty. Either of those means replacing the hard drive.