Delete exec files "in use" on mounted volume

[lauramac]

Hi there,

I'm having issues deleting a couple of useless unix executable files and their folders on a mounted volume. Here is the file structure:

folder 1
>Unix file 1
>folder 2
>>Unix file 2

When I drag any of these to the trash, I get the "cannot delete because item is in use" error. Sometimes the files will delete, but then immediately reappear in finder. Other times the files disappear when I do so much as click on them in finder, only to reappear later. It's like having a folder full of poltergeists.

I browsed around for a while looking for possible solutions to this and have tried tons of variations of "rm" and "rmdir" on finder, including "rm -rf"; all I get is endless "directory not empty" messages. I have used "ls -la" and I know there are hidden files in both of the folders, but I can't seem to force them to deleted. Any ideas?

[stilbite]

I can't help with any of the reasons or whys but have you tried running Disk Utility, Repair Permissions or Onyx from Titanium Software (FREE) to clean up the Mac and try removing the files again.

[lauramac]

Since it's a server I'm dealing with and not the hard drive I don't think those options will work...?