[SOLVED] I'm trying to delete a large amount of video from an external hard drive on my Mac, but no matter what I do, I can't delete it

[SpaceGhost92]

I even used "sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/" via terminal and it won't work, even after entering my admin password. I'm getting this error when I apply the mentioned command "rm: illegal option -- ~ usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ... unlink file"

Also, I thought I'd note that the trash bin is only full if the external hard drive is plugged in. When it's unplugged, the trash bin is empty.

 

[rmarier83]

It sound like the drive itself is corrupted with its formatting. You could try to copy all the stuff of the drive you want to keep onto another drive, and then format it. Then copy back over the files to the external. If its still acting up, maybe the drive is starting to fail. You could also try checking your HDDs health with Disk Utility (http://osxdaily.com/2012/05/24/check-hard-drive-health-mac-disk-utility/).
There's also DriveDx and Verify Disk.

 

[McHenryB]

Try the command with a "*" after the final "/".

What error message do you get when you try to empty the Trash Bin by right-clicking on it?

Edit: Also note that the OS X version of "rm" requires the switch "-d" if you want to delete directories; otherwise it will only delete files. The command that you probably want to use is:

rm -rfd ~/.Trash/*