Am having problems emptying my trash. Takes forever and then the contents don't delete. What must i do?

Question

a) Am having problems emptying my trash.
Takes forever and then the contents don't delete.
What must i do? My trash box is full and it's affecting my operating system?
b) Does the items in trash slow down my operating system?

Answer 1

Abu,
There may be something going on with your ownership if the Trash if the files aren't deleting. OK, let's try this:
Launch Terminal (found in Applications>Utilities folder). At the $ prompt, type (or paste):
ls -la
and hit Return. In the right hand column, you should see .Trash listed and to the left, you will see the "owners" name (in my case, clintondyches). If the owners name shows as root then the following will fix the problem. At the same $ prompt enter
sudo chown yourusername .Trash
(replace yourusername with your actual user name - such as mine being clintondyches).
At the prompt $ again, type or paste:
ls -la
If this was successful, you should see yourusername instead of root.
You should be in business now. You should have ownership of .Trash and be able to empty your Trash, drag items to it and empty it, etc.
Call back and let me know...
Clinton