Trashing Photo Folder gets "Can't be modified/deleted. Required by Mac OS X"

[CaptainReality]

Hi.
Just trying to free up hard drive space and avoid beachball on my MacBook Pro running OS10.6.8 by trashing a photo folder I created that has 200 gigs being used. I have backed up the folder on a couple of external hard drives and merely want to trash the original folder from my Mac hard drive. When I drag the photo folder to trash, I get the message in my thread title. I have searched all the files within the folder, and there is nothing but jpegs and NEF (Adobe) files. No .doc or system files at all. I have now opened the Photo folder and selected "all" and moved all contents of the folder to trash (leaving empty photo folder on desktop) without problem or further warning. But I am worried about actually trashing them based on the original warning when I tried to place the folder itself in trash. Just FYI, I do use Time Machine regularly, and have also copied my hard drive folder (system folder) to external hard drives for whatever that's worth.

But I am pretty puzzled about why this Mac thinks my Photo folder is critical to the entire OS. Any notions? Sure would appreciate whatever thoughts y'got. And as a follow-up, should I just close my eyes and hit EMPTY TRASH (really wanna do that and free up all that memory), what would I do if suddenly my Mac no longer booted up at all? Dumb not to have this stuff down, but appreciate anything anyone might be able to share. Thanks all!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

If you are trying to trash the following folder: Macintosh HD > Users > your user > Pictures, it will give you that error, since the folder named Pictures in your user folder is required by your user and the system. You can drag anything out that folder and to the trash without issue. If you left the Pictures folder on the Desktop, I recommend putting it back in your user folder with Desktop, Documents, etc. It may give you an error however - so let us know if it does.

If you have a full Time Machine backup, you should be OK. Manually dragging the System folder will only make a copy of the System (part of the OS X install) folder, not your user data. If you want to make a manual copy of the Pictures folder, you could copy it to an external. If you can locate a copy of the Pictures folder on one/any of your external drives, and it seems to contain all of those photos/files, you should be OK to empty the trash.

Does that help?

C

 

[CaptainReality]

Indeed it does! So the problem is that the folder is under "Macintosh HD > Users > your user > Pictures." I have copied the contents to not one but 3 other external hd's (got a million of 'em), so I am not worried about loss of pics. I guess the only questions moving forward are:

1. Where might I make a new Picture folder (if not under "User") to avoid this kind of error message in the future should I want to just drag the entire folder to trash in one fell swoop? And,
2. Beyond copying the System folder to external HD's, (and since I think...though perhaps in error...that Time Machine does not actually copy all critical files allowing one to boot up by simply dumping them into an external HD and booting from IT), how do you recommend I create a back up that truly has my entire OS on it so I CAN boot from it if needed? Acronis or some cloning software, or is there a simpler method? And THANK YOU SO MUCH for reaching out to me here. Really appreciate you taking the time!

 

[Cory Cooper]

You can simply make a folder inside the Pictures folder and call it Pictures, Photos, My Pics, etc. You can then move/delete as needed. You just can't move/delete the Pictures folder that OS X creates for your user.

There are two recommended apps:
SuperDuper!
Carbon Copy Cloner

They both make bootable clones of your entire HD.

C

 

[CaptainReality]

Thanks much, Cory!