How can I delete a folder? Not as simple as you'd think..

killsta · 7 Feb 2008 at 19:04

I've just been backing up stuff to my external HDD and I've found a folder that has 'locked itself'..and I can't for the life of me unlock it/delete it.

Here's the folder info:

All of the permissions are identical to the other folders which aren't locked:

rm -rf fails as does sudo rm -Rf

I've tried 'unlocking' it via various terminal locking commands:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031017061722471

Nothing works!

Anybody any ideas? Please nobody say "untick 'Locked' in Folder Info"...

macfb · 7 Feb 2008 at 19:27

killsta said:
I've just been backing up stuff to my external HDD and I've found a folder that has 'locked itself'..and I can't for the life of me unlock it/delete it.

Here's the folder info:

All of the permissions are identical to the other folders which aren't locked:

rm -rf fails as does sudo rm -Rf

I've tried 'unlocking' it via various terminal locking commands:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031017061722471

Nothing works!

Anybody any ideas? Please nobody say "untick 'Locked' in Folder Info"...

Just look for a little padlock symbol in the bottom right corner of info. Its like a smaller version of the one on system preferences in accounts.

See if it does anything, then let me know. And I will look into it more.

J1234 · 7 Feb 2008 at 19:30

Does plain old remove not work?

Code:

rm -R

You could try Force Delete.

killsta · 7 Feb 2008 at 19:36

Justin said:
Does plain old remove not work?

Code:

rm -R

You could try Force Delete.

Read my post again bud

killsta · 7 Feb 2008 at 19:38

This is a FAT32 drive if that helps ;-)

macfb - can't find a padlock

EDIT: 404 when trying to download forcedelete too

iSam · 7 Feb 2008 at 19:58

I would have said force delete but its no good if its 404.

ilikedthecore · 7 Feb 2008 at 20:39

Do you have a way of booting into Windows?, could be it has become read-only but because its FAT32 OSX has no way of unsetting it, on windows you would just run attrib -r filename.

A quick google shows other people with the same problem in OSX and Linux, doing it from Windows seems to be the way to go.

HTH

killsta · 7 Feb 2008 at 21:03

Cheers mate, while give that a go when I can be bothered to take it to a windows PC!

J1234 · 7 Feb 2008 at 21:35

Yeah, I had to do the same with Windows a couple of times, a weird file that doesn't want to go from the trash appears every time I download something in Windows.

Have to use attrib -r to kill it.

macfb · 8 Feb 2008 at 21:33

If you can't get it deleted, could you make a video about it and then upload it to youtube so I can see what actually is happening with it.

Thats if you haven't sorted it.

P.S. I know its a strange request, but hey

keogh · 9 Feb 2008 at 10:52

EDIT

Oops I saw what you wrote about the uncheck locked... but why dont that work? I had thje exact same prob with FAT32 and it worked fine for me??

killsta · 9 Feb 2008 at 15:27

keogh said:
EDIT

Oops I saw what you wrote about the uncheck locked... but why dont that work? I had thje exact same prob with FAT32 and it worked fine for me??

Because when I click it, it won't untick

Matthew.M · 9 Feb 2008 at 16:09

I have the *exact* same folder on a pen drive I can't delete. When its happened in the past I had to format it. This time I'm just ignoring it!

keogh · 9 Feb 2008 at 16:24

killsta said:
Because when I click it, it won't untick

Hmm that is strange, it definitely worked for me and I was able to delete it... It only had like 2 files in it, maybe that had something to do with it?

You shouldn't have any probs getting rid of it in Windows though