[dkjfh]

I would love if anyone can help.
I was trying to stuff a very large file and it got stuck halfway.
Now it shows up on my desktop as this huge file that can't be openned or delted.
The file is half highlighted at all times.
I went to permissions and I can't even make it a read write file.
All I want to do is to trash it and get it off the computer.
It is taking up 1.2 gigs of my tiny ibook.
Please help

[Krusty]

Have you tried simply logging out and back in (or just restarting) ? Sometimes an aborted process will still have a "lock" on an item and will make it act as you've mentioned. You can try to fish through all the open processes for it in Activity Monitor and try to kill the offending one (the hard way, unless you know what you're looking for) but logging out or restarting will usally terminate the offending process as well (the easy way).

[dkjfh]

Originally posted by Krusty:
Have you tried simply logging out and back in (or just restarting) ? Sometimes an aborted process will still have a "lock" on an item and will make it act as you've mentioned. You can try to fish through all the open processes for it in Activity Monitor and try to kill the offending one (the hard way, unless you know what you're looking for) but logging out or restarting will usally terminate the offending process as well (the easy way).

:



confused:

[fisherKing]

at least, try restarting.
then report back here if..!

[dkjfh]

Thanks so much for your response.
I have tried both.
restarted for about a week.
Still nothing worked.
Also tried the activity monitor.
Stuffit was not active.
Its a mystery.
Any other thoughts.
Thanks so much

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by dkjfh:
:



confused:

Have you tried logging out or restarting?

[Krusty]

ahhh .. OK, if you've tried those things then give this a whirl:
Open Terminal
type rm -f ~/Desktop/thenameofyourfile.avi

Does it work ? Do you get an error message ? If you get an error message, try typing
ls -laF ~/Desktop and take note of the exact file permissions and post what they say.

[dkjfh]

hmmm
tried it.
it just prompted me back to my login name
hmmmm?

[Krusty]

well, next then try typing 'sudo' before the 'rm -f" part. It should prompt you for your admin user's password. This is a one-time enabling of 'root' to delete the file. Post how it goes.

[dkjfh]

You did it!!!!!!
it worked!
I can't believe it.
Thanks so much

[Krusty]

No problem, I would have cut to the chase if I'd known you'd already tried the "usual" things. Just as a background, what you did was execute the delete command as the Unix "Super User" known as 'root' (sudo = "Super User Do" ... and is very powerful and dangerous to use lightly). I'd still recommend always trying the less dangerous methods (logout, etc) first before resorting to sudo.

Anyway, cheers ... glad that fixed you up.