deleting Unix Executable files?

[Sic]

i transferred some files to my USB hard drive, and they decided to delete themselves, but leave these Unix Exec files, which i cant delete. they wont even go to the trash can...is there any way to get rid of them? if it involves using command-line, would someone be able to explain as if i were a 4 year old child? i'm a bit of a mac thicky!

 

[PrOeliuM]

Ok you can try this:

0. Put in the USB drive and wait for it to be mounted
1. Open up Terminal.app it is located in Applications/Utilities
2. on the line where it says your computer name, your user name, then a $ symbol (e.g. on mine it looks like "maxis:~ proelium$") type 'cd /Volumes' (no quotes) and then hit return
3. this takes you to the Volumes directory where your drive should be mounted.
4. type 'ls' and then hit return and see if your USB drive is there (your mac's hard drive should also be listed
5. type 'cd <volume>' and hit return where volume is the name of your usb drive (do not include the <> symbols).
6. type 'ls' and hit return and see if it lists the files on that drive
7. navigate to the folder where the files you want to delete are by typing 'cd <folder>' to go into the folders, type 'cd ..' to go back a folder
8. once you find the files you want to delete, type 'rm -f <file>' and hit return, where "file" is the name of the file you want to get rid of (do not include the <>). This command should remove the file.
9. type 'ls' and then return to see if the file still shows up as being there.
10. if it doesn't, it worked, so you can exit terminal
Good luck.

 

[Sic]

i've come across a slight problem doing that. when i go to type cd <volume> it wont let me do it because there's a space in the drive name. It's called HARD DRIVE, but whenever i type cd /HARD DRIVE it only reads that i've written HARD...is there a unix symbol for space that i should be using?

 

[martinlk]

You can either type:

cd "HARD DRIVE"

or:

cd HARD\ DRIVE

 

[Sic]

grr, i dont think it wants me to delete these files. i have a bunch of files that i want to delete, but i typed rm -f Batman Begins, it did nothing...so i typed rm -f "Batman Begins" and now it wont let me list the files in the directory, saying that "ls: .: No such file or directory"

have i done anything wrong?

edit: could it be because i'm not typing a file extension? it's not showing a file extension on the file list?