"Empty Trash" removed other files.

This is rather frustrating, since I just received my MacBook Pro yesterday. I transferred a number of files off of my old laptop to a folder I created on the desktop, via USB Flashdrive. Also, I have a Creative Zen Micro that has all my music on it, and so I used the 3rd party program XNJB to access it and retrieve the music. Instead of putting the music into the Music folder, it put all of it into the Applications folder. After copying it all into the iTunes library, I removed it from the Applications folder, and cleared the trash. That not only cleared the trash, but also removed the folder I had created on the desktop, as well as the Music, Pictures, Movies, and Documents folders. I tried reinstalling using the reinstall discs, but to no avail. Help?
MacbookPro Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I suppose I should make a clarification. The help I'm looking for is how to restore the folders to the Library. The files are of no interest, as they are easily re-transferred

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I've emptied trash, removed files, discarded everything I don't use and my startup disc is still full. Half of it is 'other'. How do I find out what 'other' is and remove it?

I've emptied trash, removed files, discarded everything I don't use and my startup disc is still full. Half of it is 'other'. How do I find out what 'other' is and remove it? I'm using a Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63). Any help will be treasured!

Linda Steider wrote:
How do I find out what 'other' is and remove it?
See Pondiini's The Storage Display, for details.

Is it possible to create a secure empty trash shortcut in file menu?

I have second finger click enabled so that I can quickly move files to the trash bin from the contextual menu. This is fine and dandy, however, for files containing sensitive informaton, I'd like to have a "Secure File Delete" option available (file bypasses the trash bin and is wiped after selecting said option).
I've searched the threads and checked system prefs. Only options are to change "empty trash" to "secure empty trash". This wouldn't work as I have more files that are typically trashed and not wiped. It'd be nice to have it available as a convenience I suppose
I know theres an app in the app store that offers this functionality. It's $3-4.
So my question...is it possible to create such a contextual menu option on my own?
heres an example of what I'm ltalking about...

Create a new Service in Automator.
Set it to receive files an folders in the Finder.
Drag in an Ask for Confirmation action if you want it.
Drag in a Run Shell Script action from the Utilities section of the Library.
Set it to Pass Input as Arguments and Replace the code with:
srm -r "$@"
--That's ess-ar-em for Secure ReMove (just copy and paste)
Save it and it will show up in the Services menu when you right-click on an item in the Finder.
There are options you can add to it like -s for simple, -m for medium. The default (without options) is 35-pass Gutman.
You can see what options are available by opening Terminal and typeing
man srm
Hit space to scroll down. Q to quit the man page.
The Verbose and Interactive options won't work since you can respond.
Note that depending on the algorithm chosen, it may take some time for the file/folder to disappear from the Finder view.

How to remove OTHER files on storage

please help me remove the other files section. its higher than my apps and higher than system.
1320 user

PLease see the many posts around on this topic.
Short version;
Delete any file downloaded through apps like UCbrowser and YouTube Downloader and use storage schecker to remove temp files. Having Other storage be large is not bad by definition. No longer needed space will be released as it is needed for other apps..
Click on the blue Star Icon below if my advice has helped you or press the 'Accept As Solution' link if I solved your problem..

Remove "Other Files" from Backup Drive

I have 10.08 GB of "Other Files" on my backup drive that i need to get rid of, however i am unable to directly access the files to delete them.
Can anyone tell me how to do this?
The files are a mis-directed computer back up.

The Q drive typically contains the Factory Recovery data to restore to original factory settings. The S drive typically has the Rescue and Recovery standalone software. I dont think this is a Mis-directed backup. Are you trying to use an old Vista HDD as data Hdd now?
Read this link, it my help.
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-70829
IF this is an old hdd( now secondary drive), that USE to have a functional vista system, you can't View the Q drive
because it is NOT set as an ACTIVE partition. If this is the case, diskpart DOS command can make the Q drive Active, and thus delete able.

Can't empty trash, time machine files into it

I put my old backup time machine files in the trash. I can't empty it.
I get: The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003).
Message was edited by: cglusman

Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Unfortunately, Apple doesn't do a very good job of warning folks: +*never move, change, or delete things from your backups via the Finder.+* It can hopelessly corrupt them. You shouldn't have to delete things, since Time Machine will do that automatically, but you can. See #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
If you're trying to delete all the backups, just erase the disk with Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). That will get the trash on that disk, too.
If not, try holding down the Option key while deleting the trash (but do not use Secure Delete).
If that doesn't help, try this:
Open the Terminal app (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Be *very careful* with this app. It's a direct link into UNIX, the underpinnings of OSX, but without the protections of OSX.
In Terminal, the prompt looks like this: user-xxxxxx:~ <your name>$
(where <your name> is your short user name). It's followed by a non-blinking block cursor.
Type the following exactly as shown, placing the name of your Time Machine partition between the quotes, and be sure to place spaces where shown:
cd /Volumes/"Time Machine Backups"/
and press Return. The prompt should then change to include the name of your Time Machine drive. Then copy or type:
sudo rm -rf .Trashes
and press Return. It should then ask for your Admin password (which won't be displayed). Press Return.
If there were many items involved, this may take quite a long time. Unless there are problems, once the deletion is complete, you'll see another prompt (there's no completion message).
Once you get the trash emptied, repair your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Can't empty trash or take file out of it.

iMac 27" OS 10.9.2. There is a file called "boot.efi" nested inside5 folders in the trash that apparently belongs to my TimeMachine disk (it dissapears if I unmount the disk but reappears when it remounts.) I have tried taking it out of the trash but it just copied back onto the TM or HD disks. I can delete these copies OK but the original stays put.
Any suggestions will be appreciated

This is either too hard or too dangerous, I have everything adequatly backed-up elswhere so have re-formatted the TimeMachine and startet again. This has solved the problem.
Thanks for the suggestions.

Empty trash with large file causes immediate restart screen

I had a 200+ gig iMovie which I dragged to trash. During the delete, the system "crashed" with a gray screen prompt that tells me to perform a forced hard restart. After rebooting, I look at the file size and it's 70+ gig. So perhaps some bad sectors or something? Anyway, unable to trash what is left of this file as I get the gray restart screen every time?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!

Hi, and a warm welcome to the forums!
How much free space on what sized HD please?
If uyou havent already, start with these two steps, which may fix it also...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, *you must select your language first.)*
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
Then Safe Boot off the HD & use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, reboot once more.

How to remove "other" files from iphone memory

Concerning how the memory is used on the Iphones under the "other" category, I have found that the biggest culprit is text messages that include photos and videos sent and received. Think about it, when you take a picture and then send it, even though you delete it from your camera roll, it is still necessary to hold in memeory as being part of the text history. It is only removed from the phone when you delete it from the text message as well. This also applies to text messages received. This is a large hidden area to most people!
good luck.
Armand S.
Phila.

Restore the iOS. You may have to do this as a new phone (without using a backup). Note that "other" contains messages and emails - if you have a lot of these, especially with photos/videos, that would account for the other usage.

Can't drag mail to trash or other files in Mail in OS X 10.6.1

I just set my Mail up to connect to my company's outlook server. The problem is when i have to drag mail to a folder under the outlook inbox I get "an error occurred while moving messages to mailbox"

I started to write a long answer about printer set up and then I found the laptop I was using didn'g work like my desktop and realized that Epson has released an update for its printer driver.
Check your printer drop down box. The one that comes up after clicking print in the Aperture printer window. Click on the options window. It should show "printer settings" in the options drop down window. Thew older driver says something different like printer setup. It is their (under basic) that you can choose media type, color mode, and output resolution. It also has check boxes for 16 bit output, high speed, flip horizontal and finest detail. If you window doesn't have those things you need to update the driver. Rather than issuing a whole new driver epson has a download called common updater. run that and you may find it solves your problem.
One other note: your choice of paper may be constrained by the paper source you select (i.e.manual rear feed.)
Ink choice is constrained by media type
.If that doesn't help I will outline my whole printer flow that works for me.

Disk utility to prevent the recover of deleted files / empty trash securely

I just used the disk utility to prevent the recover of deleted files...
It created a recovery folder which I tried to empty trash securely...i the got a message saying there are some locked items and I responded to remove all items...
It would not let me do that the file stayed in the trash until I changed the setting and just emptied the trash the conventional way..
Can anyone tell me why that is happening???

Disk Drill, and all other file recovery apps for the Mac will recover every deleted file it can find on the drive. However, it should not have been at all possible to recover the ones you deleted with Secure Empty Trash. All files currently in the trash have every bit of their data overwritten 7 times with random data.
Were these part of what was recovered? Or just other normally deleted items?

I have a massive 267GB yellow 'other' file in my memory. How can i find out what it is?

I am cleaning up my Mac and have gone through the usual processes of removing downloads, emptying trash and other usual cleaning up of unwanted files. On my memory storage I have a massive yellow "other" usage of 267Gb but cannot find out what this consists of. I have the usual music and photo files but how can I find out what this consists of?

If it doesn't correct itself after a reboot, the Spotlight database on your Mac may be corrupted. Try re-indexing: Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes - Apple Support

Emptying trash takes long

I mean forever. I once wanted to remove one backup from the Time Machine drive, but when it counted about 800 000 files to be removed and started counting them down very slowly (I have a fast drive), I force killed the Locum process responsible for trash emptying and removed the files from the terminal (rm -rf). Of course it took much less time. Then I wanted to empty the rest of the trash, but this takes very long ever since. It always has say 10 files to remove and keeps removing them one after one for about a minute (insanely slow). Today I wanted to erase about 400 files (about 8GB) from my class 6 SD card and it took about two hours till I lost my patience, stopped the emptying (clicking the stop button now) and formatted the card in my camera. I wonder if it is the rm-rf procedure Mac Leopard doesn't like or what? If you look at my specs you will notice a good CPU and a fast disk too, that's just insane, It has never happened before till I did rm -rf the first time. And of course the Locum process takes a LOT of CPU performance while erasing the files. please give a suggestion what to do. thanks

1) it didn't take forever with rm -rf which is good to know in some cases
2) now everything takes forever. Okay not forever but for example I just removed a small app and trash emptying took loooong again, about a minute instead of a split of second, it has never happened to me before on a slower mac, I guess something is wrong. the Locum process - whatever it means - ate up about 130% of CPU (a whole core + 30% of the other one). I will try to reboot and inform.
edit: ah i looked the word up, no i'm not talking about a locum tenens, it is the actual name of the process which cares for file moving and trash emptying. FYI /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Resources/Locum
ohhhh you should see it counting down one after one, I tried to remove VLC player (mine 128MB), it the trash emptying window shows over 1200 files to be removed and counting down slowly at about 3files/second rate. weird. rebooting now.
Message was edited by: cukerko

"Secure Empty Trash" Didn't Clear Space on HD

How can I reallly clear the space formerly occupied by BackUp files?
When I used "Secure Empty Trash" after putting lots of BackUp files in the Trash, there was no change in the amount of available HD space. I have about 10GB of applications and files on a 60GB HD, so there should be about 45 GB of free space, but there's only 4 GB available.
FWIW, I've Repaired Permissions (only a few were necessary) and Restarted to no avail. I've used "Secure Empty Trash" to remove another file, and it worked just fine!
So how can I clear the part of my HD that I asssume is written with random 0s and 1s left by "Secure Empty Trash", not real files?

John:
Thanks for hanging in there with me! As you knew it would, WhatSize worked.
It identified the old Backup files (that the Finder didn't) and transferred them to the Trash. I used Secure Empty Trash delete them. This time it worked correctly and I have space for Backups again, thank-you very much!
If you have any idea why it didn't work the first time, I'd appreciate knowing it. I've never used it before, so I don't know if it has a repuitation for being buggy or otherwise problematic.
The name "WhatSize" was a little misleading.... I initially thought it would just do what the Finder's View > Show View Options > Calculate all sizes command does. Some of the comments on the Version Tracker site supported that idea, so as the stubborn Dutchman that I am was reluctant to do something that might make matters worse.
I also never considered the possibility that using Secure Empty Trash (as I had) would convert files into hidden files..... especially since I've never had such an experience in uising standard Empty Trash in 25+ years of Apple II and Mac use.
As you expected, I have learned that lots of HD space is devoted to hidden files (that once were visible in the "old days", if I'm not mistaken).
In any case, I very much appreciate your wisdom and willingness to keep replying when I didn't take your suggestion! Thanks!
Cheers!!
Dick

Can't Empty Trash

When I drag a file to the trash, and then try to empty it, I get a message "The operation cannot be completed because the item "Safari" is in use." If I close Safari, I still get the message, and it happens regardless of the type of file.
Also, when I open the trash to see if the file is locked or something, the trash shows and empty folder "Safari" instead of the file that I dragged to the trash. A search in Spotlight shows the file as being in the trash.
Using "Trash it" works, but I'd like to fix the problem. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance
Oh, it's an iBook G4 1.33 GHz, 1GB ram, OS 10.4.9

Option-empty trash and secure empty trash don't work and give the same error. Here's what happens:
1. I drag a file to the trash (a Word document, for example)
2. I click on the trash and select "empty trash" and get the error message
3. If I open Trash, the Word document isn't there, but there is an empty folder called "Safari"
4. If I search for the Word document in Spotlight, it lists is as beingin the trash.
5. The app "Trash It" does work in emptying the trash, but not Option-empty trash or secure empty trash.

"Empty Trash" removed other files.

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