Re: FW Hard Drive troubles

My FW drive is used at my work, so it gets switched between computers quite a bit.

I trashed an empty folder, but it remains in the trash. When i give the command to empty the trash, it says the empty folder is in use, which is impossible.

This empty folder shows up in the trash on every computer to which the drive is connected, and none of them are able to empty the trash. This seemingly arbitrary problem is causing several other issues; the most severe is that the drive seems incapable of accepting copied files and media from other drives and computers.

The ports are not blown and the files on my drive are not damaged. There must be a way to reset the drive without completely erasing everything on it. Any ideas???

Thanks,
JT

You had an application open that was using the file when you went to empty the trash. As it was in use, the file could not be deleted. Plug the drive back into the Mac that the file was trashed from. Quit all apps and try trashing again.

--ken

Thank you.

I have tried this in every manner i can think of. I have performed every manner of restart, shut down, and force quit that i can think of. I have tried repairing the drive using the disk utility app, and it was unable to finish the repair due to an underlying problem. I have even restored the folder in question, trashed each folder inside individually, and tried again, and still the computer reads these empty folders as 'in use'. Do you have any other suggestions, short of throwing the whole thing out?

Thanks,

JT

Try this. Hold down the Option key (keep holding) before you select Empty Trash.

--ken

Thank you for the help.

Still, no dice. I cannot erase these empty folders, and I am recieving an Error-36 message when I try to copy onto the FW Drive in question. The FW Drive tells me that it cannot read or write something in the file, and it happens even when the files are smaller than 2GB. Also, my jobs continue to fail when exporting videos using Compressor with my destination set to the FW Drive.

-JT

Just a guess, did someone re-format this drive to something else besides "Mac OS Extended, Journaling off" ?
Check in disc utility.

Cheers
Alexander