Can't delete cloned system folders from external drive

[macmesser]

I needed to perform some diagnostics and repairs on my boot drive and before doing so I backed the entire drive up by cloning to an external USB 3 drive with CCC. After completing repairs successfully I attempted to trash the clone and found that several folders can't be deleted from the external drive: Applications, Library, Library 7.45.10 AM. I get the message that trash can't be emptied because "Library 7.45.10 AM" is in use but no applications are running. Restarting machine and repairing the external drive before trying to delete did not work. Erasing from disk utility did work. Why was this happening and is there a way to force delete in this case?

 

[Fishrrman]

"Erasing from disk utility did work. Why was this happening and is there a way to force delete in this case?"

It looks to me like you've already found "the way that worked"...