[jasonscott71]

I'm trying to clear out (okay, DELETE) a 70GB folder of pics from my main hard drive to an external because a) I am almost out of space and b) I need to create room for my iTunes.

When I tried to delete the folder, strangely, I was asked to type my admin password. I figured this was because of the size of the folder. I did that, the password was correct, but IT STILL WON'T DELETE!

What gives? I've got this folder backed up in 3 places. I'm ready to delete it. Why won't it go away?

[Chuckit]

Do a Get Info on the file and make sure the permissions are set to read and write. The size of a file won't make you have to enter your password to delete it.

[larkost]

This will also happen if anything inside the folder has permissions that don't allow your user to delete them (so it try's root's permissions if you are an admin, and prompts you for a password to do so).

[@pplejaxkz]

That's a lot of pictures!

[zro]

If by "delete" you mean move to the Trash: Make a new folder somewhere else with the same name, then drag that folder to the location of the one you want to trash.

If by "delete" you mean empty the Trash: Move it to the Desktop and then try the above.

[jasonscott71]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Do a Get Info on the file and make sure the permissions are set to read and write. The size of a file won't make you have to enter your password to delete it.

Thanks for your reply Chuckit. I didn't know to check, so good idea, but 'Sharing & Permissions' are indeed set to read & write. So I'm even more perplexed now.

[jasonscott71]

Originally Posted by @pplejaxkz 

That's a lot of pictures!

hahahahaaaa, yes it's a lot but my RAW files are also often over 25MB each due to 14-bit.

[jasonscott71]

Originally Posted by larkost 

This will also happen if anything inside the folder has permissions that don't allow your user to delete them (so it try's root's permissions if you are an admin, and prompts you for a password to do so).

Good point, but I can't imagine what it would be. It's just my pictures. I am the admin so it should have deleted after I entered the password.

I wanna cry, lol

[jasonscott71]

Originally Posted by zro 

If by "delete" you mean move to the Trash: Make a new folder somewhere else with the same name, then drag that folder to the location of the one you want to trash.

If by "delete" you mean empty the Trash: Move it to the Desktop and then try the above.

I meant move to trash then empty the trash. I just tried to move the folder my my C drive to the desktop, in order to move it to the trash. I was blocked. "not enough space." Can I get a hell=yeah?

[zro]

Wait a minute... your C drive? As in a Bootcamp partition?

[applesbiggestfan]

Hey jasonscott, I have a Windows laptop and I am planning to switch to a Mac as soon as possible. But even on windows I'm sometimes having problems deleting a folder. Okay... I've got some ideas:

1- Go into the folder and check if there is some other type of file (other than a picture) that might be the problem.
2- Maybe you have the photos on iPhoto or some other application which uses your images (some image editor, some photo album)
3- I forgot what it was called but it's an application which shows all your applications running in the background and shows how much memory they take... open that and close any image editing programs or collections and then try deleting the folder.
4- IF NOTHING else works... try opening the folder and deleting the pictures one-by-one (you might find some pictures which you can't delete which might be causing the problem)

[analogika]

Originally Posted by jasonscott71 

I'm trying to clear out (okay, DELETE) a 70GB folder of pics from my main hard drive to an external because a) I am almost out of space and b) I need to create room for my iTunes.

When I tried to delete the folder, strangely, I was asked to type my admin password. I figured this was because of the size of the folder. I did that, the password was correct, but IT STILL WON'T DELETE!

What gives? I've got this folder backed up in 3 places. I'm ready to delete it. Why won't it go away?

Get info on the folder and under Permissions, make sure it's set to "read and write", and click the little toolbox item, "Apply permissions to all enclosed items..."

If you don't have write access to a folder (which you need to remove it from a location), moving it anywhere will COPY it there (which is why you got the "not enough space" error when trying to move it to the trash).