[ixus_123]

Can anyone help me? I need to know how to force empty the trash both for the boot drive and an external firewire drive.

most of the files are hidden (like the language localisations I removed using monolingual) so I can't even drag the out and use rm -P

(os X 10.2.5)

[Brass]

You can delete locked files in the Trash by holding down OPTION while emptying the trash, but this may not help your situation.

Have you tried moving all the trashed items to a new folder, and doing an "sudo rm -rf <new-folder>" of that folder?

NB: This is a very dangerous command if used incorrectly - it will delete anything with all authority, no questions asked, with no option for recovery. make sure you delete only the items you don't want.

[theory]

Originally posted by ixus_123:
Can anyone help me? I need to know how to force empty the trash both for the boot drive and an external firewire drive.

most of the files are hidden (like the language localisations I removed using monolingual) so I can't even drag the out and use rm -P

(os X 10.2.5)

You can use a program like filebudy. It has a force empty option
and an erase (delete without moving to trash) option. Filebuddy
is shareware though but I think you can always use all the features.

[ixus_123]

Originally posted by Brass:
You can delete locked files in the Trash by holding down OPTION while emptying the trash, but this may not help your situation.

Have you tried moving all the trashed items to a new folder, and doing an "sudo rm -rf <new-folder>" of that folder?

NB: This is a very dangerous command if used incorrectly - it will delete anything with all authority, no questions asked, with no option for recovery. make sure you delete only the items you don't want.

Thanks.

I tried the OPTION thing but it didn't work and I can't drag the files out because I can't see them - they are invisible system files mostly.

I'm going to try that filebuddy now and see if I have any joy

[ixus_123]

filebuddy sorted the problem - thanx