Can't erase invisible Time Machine folders from external hard drive

[j]

I've been using an external firewire hard drive for Time Machine backups
from a Leopard laptop and for storing other files from a Tiger desktop
computer. I want to free up the space used by Time Machine as I now have
another drive for Time Machine backups.

I deleted the visible Time Machine folder by dragging it to the trash.
However, this did not free up any disk space. Activity Monitor shows I
only have 10GB left on a 300GB partition even though I've only got
around 160GB of files stored there. I have since found an invisible and
locked folder on the drive called .HFS+ Private Directory Data which
seems to be taking up the remaining space. It looks like the backup of
the entire laptop drive. The folder contains dozens of other folders
named dir_ followed by a seven figure number. In those folders are files
recognisable from the laptop.

I've used a couple of utilities to try and make it visible with no
success. One option is to back up the other files on the disk and wipe
the whole disk but that would be very time consuming.

Any suggestions how I can get rid of the folder?

[Kevin McMurtrie]

In article <1itcacb.yxbr2x1qrzwqiN%j...@macunlimited.net>,
j...@macunlimited.net (j) wrote:

It sounds like hard link corruption in Time Machine. Disk Utility might
be able to fix it.

There are some invalid bits in the filename that will make the file hard
to delete manually. You'd at least need to be logged in as root to do
it. If you do manage to delete it, you will definitely need to run Disk
Utility or reboot to put the filesystem back in sync.

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1150.html
See the section, "Hard Links."

--
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[j]

Kevin McMurtrie <kevi...@sonic.net> wrote:

>
> It sounds like hard link corruption in Time Machine. Disk Utility might
> be able to fix it.
>
> There are some invalid bits in the filename that will make the file hard
> to delete manually. You'd at least need to be logged in as root to do
> it. If you do manage to delete it, you will definitely need to run Disk
> Utility or reboot to put the filesystem back in sync.
>
>
> http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1150.html
> See the section, "Hard Links."

Thanks for the information. Disk Utility found no problems. In the end I
backed up and erased the disk.

Maybe the problem was caused by trying to delete the Time Machine backup
from a different computer running Tiger.