Why cannot I move any files to the trash from my external drive?

I have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and an external hard drive Toshiba. I've formatted it to be used with OSX and have copied lots of files there for use as a third hard drive to save files on. But I now have found out that I cannot delete any files from this drive. When I try to move any type of file to the trash, I get this message: "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)." I've checked Info on these files and they are not locked. Can someone help me with this?

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html. BTW, the error is: paramErr = -50, /*error in user parameter list*/, which usually indicates a permissions problem. CMD+I on that disk's Desktop icon, select ignore ownership, then try again.

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How can I delete time machine backup folders moved into the trash from an external drive?

I made the mistake of moving Time Machine backup files into the trash, but I can't seem to delete them. I tried the option key when clicking on "Empty Trash" and "Secure Empty Trash" (before and after rebooting), but that always led to error 8003. The files won't allow me to change their name. Using approchaes to Terminal from three different Mac-related webpages also failed. I also tried Trash It, but it seemed to be making little progress after letting it run 48 hours. Any other suggestions before calling Apple?

Assuming these were not backups made over a network (thus not in a sparse bundle disk image), see #E6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
But any way you empty the trash on that disk/partition is probably going to take a very long time -- there's no doubt several hundred thousand files there, perhaps a million or more.
You may have to just erase the disk (with Disk Utility) and start over.
You really shouldn't have to delete Time Machine backups, as it will do that automatically when the destination gets full. But if you really want to, see #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Hi, Question about secure empty trash. I moved some Time Machine backup files to the trash from an external hard drive. Now I can't secure empty trash. It starts, finds 74,003 files, and does nothing. The external hard drive shows it's empty, but it isn't

I moved some time machine backup files from an external USB hard drive to the trash. Tried secure empty trash. It counts 74,003 items, then just sits there. The external hard drive window shows it's empty, but the info pane says it only has 50G of memory left. I left the secure empty trash on over night. It did nothing. Ideas?
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Relaunch the Finder, then from the Finder menu bar, select
Finder ▹ Preferences ▹ Advanced
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Lightroom - how to restore backed up files (not Lightroom catalogue) from one external drive to another?

How to restore backed up files (not lightroom catalogue) from one external drive to another.
I recently backuped my photo files from one external drive to another. The backup (carbon copy cloner) pointed to some corrupt files on the original drive.
I have deleted those files and am finding good copies of them in Time Machine backups.
I want to get rid of the original external drive; use the recent backup as my main external and then back it up onto a brand new drive.
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Can I point to the one parent folder and all the subfolders will come back?
Is this the process to recover files into lightroom and will there be a problem with so many photos?

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

I tried to open a 2 year old movie (3.2GB) through iDVD today from an external drive and now I cannot get the color wheel to stop spinning. I tried restarting, it allows me to login and then gets to the background screen and spins again. Any ideas?

I tried ti open a 2 year old movie (3.2 GB) through iDvD today from an external drive and got the spinning color wheel. I restarted the computer to see if it would stop and it let's me login but then the color wheel continues to spin. Any ideas?

After admittedly only a quick read the one thing you don't say is how you are trying to make this move. Most people with moving library issues do it the wrong way. Plenty of web sites tell you how to do it the wrong way.
If the iTunes application is started before the drive with the library is fully mounted and awake iTunes will revert back to the internal drive.

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Everytime I want to send a file to the trash, I have to either perform some kind of key combination/shortcut or use the trackpad/mouse, right click and select "move to trash", or drag the file(s) to the trash! This is absolutely ridiculous. Why can't I just press the delete button??? I cannot take it anymore! It's such a waste of time.
After some research, I finally found a post with the answer I was looking for from user par larsson
Re: How delete a file in mac os x?
"You can also go into System Preferences and make a new keyboard shortcut. I turned one of the function keys into a "Move To Trash" key.
1. No need to use the mouse for something that should be simple and quick.
2. Single button press just like in Windows."
Seriously!
Now the problem is how do you do this?
1. I went to the system prefs > Keyboard > Keyboard and checked "use F1, F2, etc... as standard function keys.."
2. Under keyboard shortcuts, I selected "Application Shortcuts" and clicked on the "+" sign
3. I selected the finder application, entered "Move To Trash" in the action box, and F12 as the key (because it's next to "delete")
That did not work. It just opened the dashboard instead.
4. I went back to "keyboard shortcuts" and found F12 was already assigned to open the dashboard. So I unchecked it and tried again.
That still didn't work. I would select the file to be moved to trash, press F12, and after an error "beep" sound, the last file in the folder was highlighted.

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU DID IT! I cannot believe it!
I changed "Move To Trash" to "Move to Trash" and selected a file. I had lost all hope, so I took a minute to prepare myself for yet another moment of deep frustration. Then I pressed F10, and bang! the file was trashed!!! It took me a couple minutes to actually believe what just happened. Thank you so much! If I could, I would "like" you as many times as I can physically hit the "Liked" button!
PS: what the heck is wrong with Apple though??? Wrong instructions, incorrect help instructions on their own site. The chances of figuring this out before having a nervous breakdown were like one in a million (approximately, I did not actually do the math). Last week, the keyboard and the trackpad stopped responding on my brand new macbook pro for a couple hours. I was not the only one with this problem. Apparently, this was from a design flaw, which means it could happen again at any time. iMovie doesn't work. TextEdit keeps crashing all the time. Emptying the trash can take hours.
Since 2000, I bought a PMac G4 Quicksilver, a used PMac G3 Blue, a used iBook G4, a used Pismo PBook G3, a used Graphite iMac G4, a used iMac G3 (green, 233MHz I think) and I already had more problems with this brand new macbook pro than will all the other macs combined... For such an expensive machine, with 16GB of RAM, that's a little dissapointing, especially from Apple. Maybe I'm just not lucky.
Anyways, thanks again! Best moment of 2014!

Sharing Files Over a Network from an External Drive

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Thanks for the help!

I'm sure that someone has dealt with this. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I can't move any file in the hard drive of my time capsule

Hi all !
I have my time capsule change by a new one because a problem on the main power (warranty), when i received the new one they made a backup of all of my files inside a new "data" name folder, the class i see in the finder for that new folder is "sharepoint"... but i can't move or create any file or folder diferent than the "Data" folder because finder don't let me do that... i think it a permissions problem but i don't know how to change it.
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Regards.

I have found the solution to my problem, I just needed to shut down and restart my iPad and now I can see the email text in the text field.

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No, that's not possible. A computer is required in order to effect such a transfer. Connect both drives to your computer. You can use Disk Utility to clone one drive to the other. Be sure you first partition and format the new drive:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
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3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
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Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
it to the Destination entry field.
5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
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Destination means the new external drive. Source means the old external drive.

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I have completed a backup onto an external drive using Elements 12 on my PC running Windows XP. I am now trying to restore this backup onto my new Mac using another external drive as the destination as the catalog is too big to fit onto the Mac internal HD. All seems OK until I click the restore button then I get an error message "The Disc Drive in Mac HD does not contain a valid backup" The file names on the backup drive are visible on the Mac so I presume this backup must be valid so why is there a reference to the Mac HD?

System Preferences - Sharing. If you cannot find System Preferences, then use Command - Spacebar and type System Preference and when you see it in Spotlight (uper right) hit return.

TA20831 Why do I get error code -50 when copying from one external drive to another in OSX Lion 10.7.4?

Any pointers (apart from 'googling') would be appreciated. Thanks

I have not yet been able to figure out what the problem is. I have checked the iMovie and other forums, both here and elsewhere on the Web, and I have not come across a single post that relates to this problem. The files I have been trying to copy are still on the external drive, and I have used the drive to store and transfer other files to and from my TiBook with no problems. But those three iMovie files, which will open and play from the external drive, STILL won't copy back onto my hard drive.
The one thought I had involved disk space: Maybe a significant amount (30GB or more) of free space needs to be on the target drive when copying such large files. When I get to a point where I can delete some of the larger files I have been tinkering with, I'll try again.
In the meantime, any insight from anybody into this issue will still be appreciated.

Why does it take so long to start recording from my external drive?

I know the question its a bit long, I just wanna know why does it happen, or better what can I do so it stop happening...
I mean when Im recording using the drive from my macbook, it would not delay to start recording, but when Im working with the external drive and put it to record it takes like 40 seconds before its starts recording...
Im still learning so, please someone reply this concern ...
thanks

+Im working with the external drive+
Are you 100% sure that your external drive is formatted to Mac OSX Extended, with journaling off? (NOT FAT32 or NTFS) Select the disk and press command-I to find out.
If not, _back up all the data on the drive_, and reformat it using your Disk Utility (Utilities folder).

How to move Startup Disk clone from one external drive to another?

I thought this would be a question easily answered on the WWW and easily found via search engines, but so far no luck, hence this question.
Prior to upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion I followed some very good instructions from Tom Nelson on ask.com (http://macs.about.com/od/backupsarchives/ss/diskbackup.htm) related to using Disk Utility to clone my internal Macintosh HD drive to an external hard drive, making it a bootable drive. I cloned to a very nice LaCie external FW drive that had far more room than that needed for the clone. This drive booted just fine as a startup disk, so mission accomplished:   I have now a bootable clone of my Lion system prior to upgrading to Mountain Lion.
The upgrade to Mountain Lion went well, and now, before I put any additional apps or much additional data on the original internal Macintosh HD drive, I want to use Disk Utility again to clone the drive so I'll have a snapshot of the system right after the upgrade to Mountain Lion.
Questions:
Is there any way to use the same LaCie drive that now holds the Lion startup disk clone to hold the yet-to-be-done Mountain Lion startup disk clone?
If not, how can I move the Lion startup disk clone from the oversized LaCie external drive to a drive more the size of the Lion clone (approx 140G)?   The LaCie drive is far too roomy and nice to have sitting gathering dust for only 140G to be used in an emergency restore.
Thanks in advance for your advice.

Good info Csound1, and thanks.
So my final question (I think): How does one move/copy a startup disk clone from one external drive to another, and still have it bootable on the new external drive?   I'm still considering freeing this LaCie drive up for more dynamic storage and getting another drive for the bootable startup disk clones IF I can move this Lion startup disk clone to a new external drive.
I guess the summary question is:   how does one clone a startup disk clone? As I think about this, and recall the Disk Utility screens, couldn't I simply select the Lion clone on the LaCie FW external drive and do the same operation I did with the original internal Lion drive? Basically the same steps as before but this time the source is the LaCie FW external and the destination is a new external drive?
Thanks again; wonderful forum here with very smart people.

Cannot move any files into trash to delete them. I get a Trash warning box saying "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in 'file name' could not be read or written.(Error code - 36)".Macbook has so much data it is almost not working

Cannot move any files into trash to delete them. I get a Trash warning box saying "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in 'file name' could not be read or written.(Error code - 36)".Macbook has so much data it is almost not working.
I have tried reseting to factory settings by removing battery and holding down the power switch for more than 5 sec but this does nothing.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated as I think with so much unwanted data on the desktop and other places the whole os will crash very soon.
Thanks, Rick

The hard drive may be dying anyway, or the directory damaged because it is so full. You should never let the hard drive get over 85% full.
A -36 error is a read/write error.
All you did with the power is reset the SMC. Does nothing to reset everything to factory settings.
Do you have your original 10.4 installer discs for the MacBook?
Is your data backed up?

Why does a gray screen display whenever I try to open a pdf (or any file) using the updated version of adobe

Why does a gray screen display whenever I try to open a pdf (or any file) using the updated version of adobe

Chances are you are looking at the place holder of a large image. Go to the preferences and check that View Large Images is checked.

Why cannot I move any files to the trash from my external drive?

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