Not able to delete file from external hard disk

I connected my external hard disk to my macbook pro. But am not able to delete any file since it says the file cannot be deleted when I move it to trash. Could you let me know how to delete a file from the external hard disk?

How is your HDD formatted? NTFS? FAT?
Did you write files with rights? When you strike +I on any file, you can see its rights; if you're read-only, you may change your file's rights.

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    This is happening often enough to be really painful:
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    Browsing Google and Macosxhints and all of that, the suggestions indicate that I should "repair permissions", "repair disk", and reboot. All done. Still doesnt work.
    What now? I never had this problem with Windows. What's with this permissions drivel on OSX and how can I fix it once and for all? I only use my machine to browse on Firefox/Safari, talk with Skype, edit with Coda/Transmit, and then Office documents. Which of these tools changes these mysterious permissions so that I have to keep "repairing" again and again???
    Thanks for any pointers or advice!

    I am on shaky ground here because I am totally ignorant about about Windoze and MS-DOS. What I can tell you, though, is that the Unix underpinning of Mac OS X is heavily reliant on the concept of "ownership" which, apart from other factors, has security implications. FAT32 has absolutely no concept of file ownership. (That's why Microsoft encourages everyone to use NTFS instead - mainly for the security implications).
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  • Can't delete file from external hard drive

    Hi,
    There is a permition problem with my external hard drive (no time mashine on it!) - can't delete certain files.
    I copied my documents on my external hard drive from previous computer with windows and later with linux system on it and there had been changed icons at certain folders previously. I mention this, becouse what linux did was that it locked the changed icon files and I couldn't delete them until I unlocked them manually. But at least it showed me that i don't have permition and i could change it. Well, now I mounted the disk on my new macbook and wanted to delete some files and it seems that there is the same problem with permition, at least it seems to happen with the same files. When I want to delete them, the system asks me for admin password, I give it allright, it makes the sound as if the folder was moved to trash but that's all. the folder is still there even after dismounting and restarting. I already checked the permitions and it says in the info that i can read and write with the file so it looks as if my rights were ok...
    Please help, I desperatly need more space for new backup and can't get rid of the files I don't need any more...
    Thank you for any sort of simple-ish advice
    Message was edited by: brevon

    Thanx for such qucik reply!!! The pages were great, it had an answer for my problem, but unfortunately it also involved me dealing with it only on the MacIntosh HD itself, not on mounted external drive I suppose... So it didn't work they say that there is an icon in the left corner indicating locked folder - I don't see any icon on it. It says you can untick the box to unlock the folder - there is no tick to be unticked. Finally, they say that if I don't have permition or rights I cannot delete it. But how do i change permittion which already says that i can read and write in it? So everything appears to be normal only I cannot delete it. there is not even any warnig telling me I don't have enough rights, it just requires the password and after me typing it in it makes the sound of scraping paper but does nothing more. I aslo had some problems with emptying Trash after being seemingly succesful with one file and had got so far to have them appear in the Trash (no clue how this one actully got there though..) I followd the advice and emptied the Trash with Terminal. The Folder is still there but it shows 0 Kb... So far so good BUT: It is still on the external drive, so I obviously only managed to copy it into the Trash!!! Phew, innit a bit too tight to poor owners, this macbook?? I want my rights back!

  • Troubles deleting files from external hard drive!!

    I had my external hard drive plugged into my Macbook but i cannot delete any folder or file in it! There is not 'Move to Trash' option from the drop-down menu! Does this have anything to do with 'Folder Action' thing? please help! sorry i jst switched to Mac from Window recently so still trying to find my way through! Thanks

    Hi,
    Mac OSX can read and write/delete files and folders on harddisks that use the FAT32 file system.
    Mac OSX can only read and not write/delete files and folders on harddisks that use the NTFS file system.
    Use Disk Utility to check what file system your HD uses.
    To enable write access from OSX to NTFS drives, you can either use NTFS-3G http://www.ntfs-3g.org/ or buy Paragons NTFS for OSX http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
    Regards
    Stefan

  • (Error code -36) Can't delete files from external hard drive

    So as I was copying files to my hard drive (Seagate Backup Plus Drive) my Macbook Pro went flat, and so the files obviously didn't get to finish copying. Now they're greyed out in my folder and when I try to move the files to the trash it comes up with this message:
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    (Error code -36)"
    Does anyone know how I can fix this? I've tried a couple of different things and nothing has worked, and I don't wanna stuff around too much in case I lose everything.

    Presumably you are using the Seagate as an external HD.
    "my Macbook Pro went flat" means the MBP shut down or powered off suddenly for some reason?
    If your Seagate was not properly ejected that would cause problems. You should run Disk Utility and Verify and Repair the Seagate, if needed. Then you should be able to deal with the uncompleted files.

  • Can't delete files from external hard drive

    So here's an interesting problem that I've never run across. I have a Western Digital hard drive plugged in and I was deleting some files off it today when suddenly it started saying that there were some files in use and it couldn't delete those. I hit "Continue" which usually does the trick but it just deleted everything else and left a bunch of folders with these weird empty files in them. So I quit all programs and tried again. Same thing, "Cannot delete, file in use." Tried rebooting both my computer and the external, again "Files in use." Did a google search, followed numerous suggestions, terminal sudo rm -r +file name, a force delete app, secure delete, holding down the option button while deleting... No dice. When I try the sudo rm thing in terminal it tells me that the folder doesn't exist AND that it isn't empty and won't delete it. (I love computers) When I do a right click->Get info on it, it says that I have read-write permissions but that the files are locked but won't let me unlock them (I'm the system administrator). When I look at the files in finder, it says they're actually aliases. What's really weird is that the file names are all messed up and have asian characters and stuff in them. I didn't create these aliases or have files with those characters in them. Soooo... Any suggestions? Cause I've read the threads and tried just about everything. I'm concerned this drive is headed for a crash or maybe just needs to be wiped and then put my stuff back on cause it's gotten errors over time. I don't know, I've never had this happen before and I'm pretty good with computers. If it was a windows computer I'd be doing a scan disk and defrag on it but I don't know how to do that on a mac to an external hard drive. I honestly don't know if this is a hardware or software problem. Any help would be appreciated.

    Oh... well  this is interesting... disk utility is say that it IS formatted MS-DOS (FAT32). Is that what's causing these errors? This thing has been running with my mac beautifully for years. So do I pull my stuff off, wipe it and reformat it for a mac? Or since it is FAT 32 can I hook it up to a windows computer and fix the problem? Since I had the wrong format, I can delete the files but if I don't fix the format this will keep happening?
    Volume repair reported:
    Verify and Repair volume “750GBEXT”
    ** /dev/disk1s1
    ** Phase 1 - Preparing FAT
    ** Phase 2 - Checking Directories
    /.../SpryAssets/_NOTES has entries after end of directory
    Truncate? yes
    /..../My Work has entries after end of directory
    Truncate? yes
    ** Phase 3 - Checking for Orphan Clusters
    95906 files, 181003968 KiB free (5656374 clusters)
    ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
    Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
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    I have a mid 2009 Macbook Pro Model running Mac OS X Lion... I am unable to delete some files from my desktop..One is an image file and other is an application.. I checked that i have read/write privileges,I am the admin and the files are not locked...
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    Repairing the permissions of a home folder in Lion is a complicated procedure. I don’t know of a simpler one that always works.
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  • Cannot delete file from external hard drive (error code 36) in Finder, but Terminal is ok

    I have a relatively new Macbook Pro Retina 15" and have a Western Digital 1 TB Passport.  I've been using the passport for about a year now without any problems on older Macbooks in my house.  I used to be able to read and write to this drive no problem.  I am using the Paragon NTFS for Mac software in order to read and write to the NTFS drive.  When I navigate through the drive in Finder, if I try to create a new folder, I do not have a problem.  If I try to delete that folder I just created, I get this error:
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    Thanx for such qucik reply!!! The pages were great, it had an answer for my problem, but unfortunately it also involved me dealing with it only on the MacIntosh HD itself, not on mounted external drive I suppose... So it didn't work they say that there is an icon in the left corner indicating locked folder - I don't see any icon on it. It says you can untick the box to unlock the folder - there is no tick to be unticked. Finally, they say that if I don't have permition or rights I cannot delete it. But how do i change permittion which already says that i can read and write in it? So everything appears to be normal only I cannot delete it. there is not even any warnig telling me I don't have enough rights, it just requires the password and after me typing it in it makes the sound of scraping paper but does nothing more. I aslo had some problems with emptying Trash after being seemingly succesful with one file and had got so far to have them appear in the Trash (no clue how this one actully got there though..) I followd the advice and emptied the Trash with Terminal. The Folder is still there but it shows 0 Kb... So far so good BUT: It is still on the external drive, so I obviously only managed to copy it into the Trash!!! Phew, innit a bit too tight to poor owners, this macbook?? I want my rights back!

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