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I have a folder on my Drobo called "HFS+ Private Directory Data" and it contains old Time Machine data. I cannot delete it and do not want to reformat my drobo. I have tried 'option' trashing and various Terminal hacks but to no avail. I am using Lion now.

It's about 36 GB and I would love this space back. I'm running Lion on a 2006 MacPro and it's a four bay Drobo with 3 TB of 4 TB used. I use the Drobo for image files and a separate drive for Time Machine.

Any ideas?

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Could you clarify a bit? Is your "separate drive for Time Machine" a statement of your new setup intentions or part of the problem? Also, drobo have several products and software that behave differently - you might want to list the specifics if you don't want a general answer. (I.e. Delete using time machine interface and contact drobo if that fails) – bmike♦ Sep 5 '11 at 13:57

2 Answers

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Can't you delete it from the Time Machine interface? Or is this a backup from a computer you no longer use? If the latter then there shouldn't be much/any risk in just force deleting it. If I remember right then you need to clear the immutable flag from the directory (or from all the files?)

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You probably shouldn't try to delete it by hand. See the Hard Links section of: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn/tn1150.html

It contains info about hard links on your filesystem which are key to how Time Machine works. The directory should be hidden by default.

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