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On an external HD, when I delete a file, OS X prompts me that the file will be deleted without putting it into the trash folder. What is the reasons for that? How can I move it in trash folder before permanently delete it?

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  • What type of external drive and how is it formatted, what filesystem is it using? How are you deleting the files, via Finder or Terminal? Is the external drive directly physically attached or is it a NAS?
    – user3439894
    Mar 14, 2016 at 15:30
  • The issue is symptomatic of a missing .Trashes folder on the external hard drive.
    – fd0
    Mar 14, 2016 at 16:28
  • @user3439894 Is an volume mounted internally to MacPro. Is formatted Apple_HFS. I delete files via Finder.
    – Edoardo Stefani
    Mar 15, 2016 at 13:21
  • @fd0 .Trashes exists
    – Edoardo Stefani
    Mar 15, 2016 at 13:22
  • You first stated "On an external HD ..." and now you're saying "Is an volume mounted internally to MacPro", which are two different things!
    – user3439894
    Mar 15, 2016 at 13:35

1 Answer 1

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The OS X finder maintains a few hidden directories to handle Mac specific filesystem functions like:

  • Spotlight = /Volumes/X/.Spotlight-V100
  • file version history = /Volumes/X/.DocumentRevisions-V100
  • trash = /Volumes/X/.Trashes
  • Time Machine (and other) filesystem changes = /Volumes/X/.fseventsd

These are suppressed on many network and "foreign" filesystems by design and/or if the filesystem is read-only. You can use the command line tool (or the get information menu command in Disk Utility) to inspect the format of your volume:

diskutil list /Volumes/X/

Hopefully this is the cause - if your volume is of type Apple_HFS or similar and you don't see the hidden directories, you might need to dig deeper and repair that filesystem or look at some other cause. The simple reason would be that the hidden directories are suppressed by design in your case.

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    I had checked all folders and all of them exist. The volume is Apple HFS . I can't repair permission on that volume. I simply checked _Ignore ownership on this volume and everything seem fixed!
    – Edoardo Stefani
    Mar 15, 2016 at 13:18

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