Trouble deleting a "nonexistent" file

S

scottbmorton

Registered
Hi all,

I'm kind of a Mac newbie . . . I've got a problem where I have this folder with an html document in it, but I can't delete it. When I try to open the document it says the file doesn't exist; I also can't delete it when I move it to the Trash. I can't wipe out the folder either because it thinks the file is still inside, even though the file doesn't actually "exist." Permissions seem ok on the file and it's not locked or anything.

When I try to copy this file or open it I get an error -43 file does not exist.

Any ideas how I can get rid of this "ghost file"? Thanks!

-Scott
 
Scott, TinkerTool System (6€ from versiontracker.com) is good
for all sorts of things, including flushing files that don't exist.
 
Open the Terminal Application (in Utilities folder) and type:

cd ~/.Trash
hit return

then type;

sudo rm -rf

put a space after the f and drag the item you want deleted to the terminal so that its path is automatically entered, then press return

give it your admin password and hit return
 
Looks like I might have to pick up TinkerTool; that method didn't seem to erase the file. If I drag the folder into the terminal, it won't delete it because the "folder is not empty" but if I drag the file itself in, the file doesn't delete and remains in the folder. I can't move it out of the folder because it doesn't "exist."
 
I downloaded Tinker Tool and it also will not let me delete the file or folder, regardless of using its "force delete" features. It gives me an error message.

Any other suggestions?
 
If you can put the file in the trash, restart the machine with the file in the trash. when the Mac restarts go to "finder" in the menu bar and select "Secure Empty Trash" or use bobw's suggestion.
 
I tried doing the Secure Empty Trash and I got a message "Cannot delete: the folder is currently in use." Maybe it's being locked by some other process?

For reference, the file was part of Adobe Photoshop CS2 Demo and the filename is:

Tiếng Việt.html

Only, the blocks don't display in the actual filename, only when I copy/paste it.
 
Hm, this is kind of a far fetch... but maybe if you start your machine from the OS X CD/DVD, and try to delete it via Terminal then? If you feel secure enough with terminal action that is
 
I've had no luck short of rebuilding my system, and one rogue html file doesn't seem to warrant that. So . . . I've constructed a shrine for this file in a folder that is called "The Undeletable File." There it will stay in all its glory. All hail the Undeletable File.
 
Well, since others have offered their suggestions I'll point to the tool that will take care of it for you. SuperGetInfo.

http://bbedit.com/products/super/index.shtml

There is a demo version, I'm not sure what its limitations are.

It works. I don't even bother looking for other solutions if I have a file which does not want to be removed and I know I want it gone.

Instead of figuring out why it's locked I'll just use SGI.
 
scottbmorton said:
I've had no luck short of rebuilding my system, and one rogue html file doesn't seem to warrant that. So . . . I've constructed a shrine for this file in a folder that is called "The Undeletable File." There it will stay in all its glory. All hail the Undeletable File.
Click to expand...

No, you misunderstand. :)

Start your Mac from the System DVD, and open the Terminal from the System DVD. When the installer starts, you can start applications from the menu-bar at the top of the screen. I think Terminal is in there as well. If you can access the Terminal from the System DVD, you could try deleting the file, as it could impossibly be blocked by an application.

No need to run through the installer/rebuilding your system. At all ;)
 
I did try the Terminal from the DVD method. I also tried SuperGetInfo and had no luck. Nothing is working. Every program or method so far has said "file does not exist" or "error" of some sort. I searched the web a bit and I think it has something to do with the special characters in the filename (it was a Vietnamese character set in the filename.) There was some other guy who was trying to do a backup of his system after installing Adobe Photoshop CS2, and he also could not copy this same exact file. I've found no posts anywhere on how to delete it successfully though.

I know it sounds like I'm totally making this up but I seriously have taken the time to try every method this thread has suggested, with no luck. =( It's alright though; it's not a huge deal, as long as it's not happening on a regular basis where I can't delete special character files.
 
I can see that file. It's in both the Photoshop and Illustrator folders.

/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS2/Legal.localized/Tiếng Việt.html

The owner is root, group is admin.

With SuperGetInfo try changing the owner to yourself. (You'll be prompted for your password) Then you may be able to move it with the Finder to the Trash and empty the trash.

In Terminal (the way I have it set up) the Vietnamese characters are represented by ? so it's easy to see why the Terminal solutions don't work.

In Finder it shows correctly

edit: You can also use the Regular Info window to change the owner (click the little padlock). Finder Info shows the owner as System. I guess they don't like scary terms for regular folks.
 
If I were Scott, I would be happy with the shrine idea. How lovely.

Made me laugh at least. :)
 
The Shrine it is. SuperGetInfo won't even let me open the file to look at its properties. Maybe I screwed it up even further by moving it around on my system, who knows. Oh well. Let this be a lesson to all of you with Adobe Photoshop CS2. Lol.
 
Adobe did their best at obfuscating that folder and its contents. They really don't want regular folk removing their legal stuff.

I'm not quite sure how they get a folder with a real name of Legal.localized to show in the Finder as only 'Legal'.

I have no problem removing it once I've changed the file's owner and the permissions on the containing Legal.localized folder.
 
okay,

i am new to amc, but not to computers. first, let me say that i love my mac and do not ever see myself going back to a pc again.

however, my macbook is only a week old, and i was having a problem with disk utility error message -illegal- plus "underlying task reported error" it would not complete the utility stuff, so... i searched and searched and found something that said i may need to reinstall my system!!!

BUT, i searched further and found that adobe sucks a load! they have a file (Vietnamese legal) which you have been discussing, and cannot for teh life of me delete it. i've changed permissions and tried rebooting, but nothing. i believe this problem is preventing disk utility from working properly and i'd like to see what happens if i can actually delete this @$#$!!

if you know, or if the original poster found an answer, please let me know. this is very frustrating.

other than that... once you go mac, you don't go back...
 
bighired said:
however, my macbook is only a week old, and i was having a problem with disk utility error message -illegal- plus "underlying task reported error" it would not complete the utility stuff, so... i searched and searched and found something that said i may need to reinstall my system!!
Click to expand...
I doubt that this file is causing the disk utility error. Restart from your install CD or an external FireWire drive (you do have one for back-up right? :) ). Then run Disk Utility again.

To make it clear how I deleted that Adobe file I'll repeat.

It lives in a folder named Legal (or Legal.localized) within the Photoshop or Illustrator folder with the 'Legal' folder owned by root with a group - admin.

Only root has r/w permissions on the folder (755). I changed the folder permissions to give admin r/w permission (775).

I then changed the Owner of the troublesome file to my user name and I can then delete the file. Alternatively you could change the permissions of the file to 775 or 777 (r/w for admin or r/w for all) and then delete it.

I did this with SuperGetInfo. Using the Terminal to make these changes is problematic because the Vietnamese characters cause problems within Terminal.

I can't see any downside to this because the Legal folder only contains a bunch of html files with Adobe's legalese. It seems that Adobe installs the folder and files in this way to make it hard for average users to delete these documents.
 
thanks for replying!

i am trying to delete the file and did download the program. the file seems to be running and when i try to change the settings, it will not let me, or at least will not delete, maybe because it's still 'fetching'

as for the install disk, i do have one, i can run it without it changing my system and use applications from it?

stilll loving the mac ::love::
 
bighired said:
thanks for replying!

i am trying to delete the file and did download the program. the file seems to be running and when i try to change the settings, it will not let me, or at least will not delete, maybe because it's still 'fetching'
Click to expand...
Did you change the permissions of the enclosing Legal folder? You can't make changes to the contents unless you do.
as for the install disk, i do have one, i can run it without it changing my system and use applications from it?
Click to expand...
Sure.
 
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