MacOS – Error: “The operation can’t be completed because one or more required items can’t be found. (Error code -43)”

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I accidentally pulled an NTFS hard drive out of my Mac OS X Mavericks machine several times and realized that I accidentally created multiple entries of many different names in my /Volumes/ folder. Now I have storage_1, storage_2, storage_3, passport, etc. in my /Volumes/ folder.

I tried a few solutions to unmount the drives (they didn't show up as unmountable however since they technically don't exist as real drive volumes). I tried a few quick rm filename -r and rmdir filename commands to no avail.

The error I get when I try to delete ANYTHING in Finder, however, is

The operation can’t be completed because one or more required items can’t be found.

(Error code -43).

Obviously I Google'd the answer to this problem and was able to fix it initially by fixing my hard drive permissions. However, this fix didn't work for the /Volumes/ folder, just every other folder. Now, nothing works.

Any suggestions?

Best Answer

A simple shut down, then start, of OS X should automatically remove debris from

/Volumes

If you like: disconnect/eject any removable media before the start.

Or simply leave the media in place, and restart.

There may be other approaches to dealing with volume debris whilst the OS is running but in my experience, it's often better to restart.

Also recommended

Error -43 may truly indicate a file system inconsistency, so use Recovery OS Disk Utility to verify affected file systems.

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