Strange 16gb file created during backup
 

A 16gb file has appeared on my backup drive, filling the drive and preventing SD from completing.

It's a bizarre creature: an orphaned alias with permissions of: ---s-wS--- whatever that means.

I can't sudo rm it, I can't unmount my backup drive. This file never existed on my internal drive but has been created during the backup process and seems to have kept growing until it ran out of room.

Any clues?

bongoman

Are you running an AntiVirus software, bongoman?

No antivirus software.

It seems the problem file grew from an incomplete Firefox download. I was downloading a demo version of an Adobe CS2 app as a dmg, which Firefox writes as a .part file until the download is complete. So the problem file is an alias to the incomplete dmg file.

Many thanks

bongoman

Interesting. Is it fixed at this point?

No; I can't delete the problem file. If a 'sudo rm' can't do it then I'm not sure what would.

OK. Let's restart the system and then just use Disk Utility to erase the volume... that should certainly do it! :)

Will do. Thanks.