0

I have a disk with 8 partitions, like this: Disk partitions

And I wanted to delete a 23gb file. I dragged the folder to the trash, and the file disappeared, but later I checked the avail space with df -h and the 23gb were still there, but the folder is not visible. Later I was searching how to delete archives, and I discovered that dragging was not the form to do it.

Now I don't know how to delete the 23gb because I don't see it. When I dragged the folder to the trash, this cursor appeared: Cursor

Also, the 23gb folder was in /home and the trash in desktop… I don't know if this matters but just in case. I asked in Xfce forums and they said that was a system issue, so that is why I ask here.

Thank you

3 Answers 3

1

First, find Trash:

sudo updatedb
locate Trash

On my system, it's in a hidden directory .local/share/Trash.

Next, identify the file yoou want to remove:

ls ~/.local/share/Trash

You should see some directories; something like:

expunged  files  info

In my case, after looking a bit, a file I want to remove is in files.

ls ~/.local/share/Trash/files
some_file.avi

Now we remove it:

rm ~/.local/share/Trash/files/some_file.avi
2
  • When I wrote locate Trash I saw that the directory was /home/.Trash-0/info/ Should I replace the .local for .Trash-0? Jun 14, 2017 at 22:30
  • I suggest that you list the contents of the directory info to see if your file is in there before you do anything permanent. The command rm for remove is very, very difficult to undo. ls /home/.Trash-0/info/
    – chili555
    Jun 14, 2017 at 22:34
0

Your file is probably sitting in the trash can waiting to be emptied. Right click on the trash icon and click Empty Trash and that should take care of it.

Really big files might not fit in the trash can. Usually you are asked if you just want to delete it and if you respond yes, it's gone.

User trash is located in $HOME/.local/share/Trash You can always go in there and manually remove stuff with the rm command if you like.

It's a bit more complicated but invoking Bleachbit (you may have to install it first) as a mortal user will clean up your $HOME file system. It has a lot of options. One of them is to scrub trash.

There are various maintenance processes that run from time to time. If you wait a few hours the cleanup may take care of itself.

0

Go to this directory:

cd ~/.local/share/Trash/files

look for your file, if it exist there, delete it and it's permanently gone.

If you can't find it there then search to find it:

find /  -size +22G

If your search didn't bring you any result, run a file system check, there is a chance that your file has been removed while your filesystem doesn't know about it, based on your file system you can run something like:

sudo fsck.ext4 /dev/sda2

The partition should be unmounted.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .