Newbie help!

mmmpringles

Hi,



I'm on my third day of my new powerbook, which is my first mac. I've been using them at work for a while now so I'm familiar with them to a certaqin extent, but I've gone and done something rather stupid, and I'm not sure what to do about it.



I was downloading a file, and I got disconnected, so on my desktop there is a 500kb uncompleted download. Now, for some reason I can't get rid of it. When I drag it into the trashcan I'm told that its being used with another task. I've tried everything I know, and a few friends have given it a go. Its really starting to annoy me now, sitting on the desktop like a smug unwanted uncle



help would be really, REALLY appreciated. Thanks

Gary

ijerry

You would have to use the "Terminal" to delete the file if it is giving you that much of a hard time.

Launch Terminal and type: <cd .Trash> then type <is> and <sudo rm -R {name of file/directory to delete}>



Hope this helps out.

kecksy

Quote:

Originally posted by mmmpringles

Hi,



I'm on my third day of my new powerbook, which is my first mac. I've been using them at work for a while now so I'm familiar with them to a certaqin extent, but I've gone and done something rather stupid, and I'm not sure what to do about it.



I was downloading a file, and I got disconnected, so on my desktop there is a 500kb uncompleted download. Now, for some reason I can't get rid of it. When I drag it into the trashcan I'm told that its being used with another task. I've tried everything I know, and a few friends have given it a go. Its really starting to annoy me now, sitting on the desktop like a smug unwanted uncle



help would be really, REALLY appreciated. Thanks

Gary

You might have to restart before you can delete it. If that doesn't work, you might have to do some Terminal voodoo.



Open the Terminal and type the following:



sudo rm -r Desktop/name_of_file



enter your password.



Make sure you type the name of the file exactly. OS X is case sensitive.

ericj551

To make it easier, you can just type "sudo rm -r" and drag the file to the terminal, automatically inserting its path.

mmmpringles

Thanks a lot for the replies. I followed your instructions and this is what I saw:



[Gary-Adamss-Computer:~] garyadams% sudo rm -r/Users/garyadams/Desktop/f

rm: illegal option -- /

usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ...

unlink file

\

kecksy

Quote:

Originally posted by mmmpringles

Thanks a lot for the replies. I followed your instructions and this is what I saw:



[Gary-Adamss-Computer:~] garyadams% sudo rm -r/Users/garyadams/Desktop/f

rm: illegal option -- /

usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ...

unlink file

\

There should be a space between -r and the path name.

mmmpringles

Thanks a lot! My desktop is looking gorgeous again.

whisper

FWIW, the "-r" part doesn't do anything when you're deleting individual files. It stands for "recursive" and it's only necessary when you're trying to delete a non-empty folder.



{edit: grammar}

mount_my_floppy

Don`t you need the -d flag to? If your using rm? I know I do anyways...

pb

And never try



sudo rm -r *



or even worse



sudo rm -rf *



unless you really know what are you doing.

kecksy

Quote:

Originally posted by PB

And never try



sudo rm -r *



or even worse



sudo rm -rf *



unless you really know what are you doing.

Wildcard. Destroyer of volumes.