# Ugh! Faster way to empty Trash? Or delete huge amounts?



## Jasoco (Dec 21, 2002)

Sheesh!

I'm deleting a Backup off my FW HD of my main HD. I don't need it. I can't just reformat the HD as there are other backups on it. So it's in the Trash and I choose Empty Trash and it is taking FOREVER! JUST TO COUNT!

WHY the hell does the Mac OS COUNT every file? And WHY is it so SLOW? And then once it COUNTS them it has to DELETE them. Which takes forever TOO! It's currently up to 45,000+ files COUNTED! UGH! It's NEVER going to finish!

Is there a FASTER way? Like maybe the Terminal or something? I know when I use RM to delete a single file it is fast because there's no GUI or anything. Even when I delete a bunch of files it's fast, but it does not remove directories. It says "This is a directory, you dummy. I can't delete it!" WHY NOT? PLEASE! I hate the Trash Can.


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## bobw (Dec 21, 2002)

Empty trash through Terminal;

rm -r *

To do this safely, you should first type cd ~/.Trash (to make sure you're in your trash directory)


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## evildan (Dec 21, 2002)

Jasco,

No one likes taking out the trash. But just like everything else in life, it has to be done. Bobw's advice is sound, use the terminal for many files such as you have described above.


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## Jasoco (Dec 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by bobw _
> *To do this safely, you should first type cd ~/.Trash (to make sure you're in your trash directory) *



Don't worry. I woulda realized that.

Boy would that have been a mistake if I didn't.


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## chevy (Dec 22, 2002)

If they are several users, each one has his own Trash, or even Trashes... deleting all may need to do the operation several times, and to play with access rights.


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