Trashing from an external BKUP drive.

[Graham]

Marn's computer has time machine running and from that drive we found large number of old files that were put into the trash.
She is not able to empty the trash.... How can we get rid of the files?

 

[chas_m]

Marn's computer has time machine running and from that drive we found large number of old files that were put into the trash.
She is not able to empty the trash.... How can we get rid of the files?

1. Dismount the Time Machine drive.
2. Check to see if the files are still in the trash.
3. If yes, empty the trash. If they still won't delete, restart the Mac and try emptying the trash again. If you're still getting the warning, that's an indication that they are important to the system or not "your" files to trash (i.e., don't belong to the user you are signed in as).
4. If the files are not in the trash when you dismount the Time Machine drive, this mean they are part of the other drive's trash, not your Mac's trash. Re-mount the Time Machine drive, but turn off Time Machine. You should now be able to trash the files, but please be cautious and understand fully what it is you are throwing away; if you trash an important part of your backups, Time Machine will no longer work properly.