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I have around 2,000 files that look like ".._.iTunes Preferences.plist.XXXXXX". I've tried to remove them with: 

find . -name ".._*" -exec rm -f {} \;

But, the files are still there. How can I get rid of these files?

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Sidenote: you shouldn't use -exec rm -f {} \;, just use -delete to remove matching files. – Olli Mar 22 '11 at 7:25
I tried that and it has the same No such file or directory error as when you do a rm. This error was one of the reasons I tried to do a different way of deleting these files. But, thank you for letting me know about the --delete option. – Charles Mar 22 '11 at 14:29
Do a file system check using Disk Utility: Select the partition the files are on and "Verify Disk". It sounds like there's something wrong there. – Daniel Beck Mar 26 '11 at 9:57
Daniel, Verify/Repair Disk is the answer. After doing that, the files were easily removed. If you list this as an answer, I'd be happy to mark it as correct. Thank you! – Charles Apr 5 '11 at 21:49
That won't send a notification, but something like @DanielBeck would. – Lri Apr 6 '11 at 0:24
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up vote 1 down vote accepted

If they're all in the same directory, use

rm ./.._.iTunes*

Your comment suggests that something's wrong with the file system. Try to repair it using Disk Utility.

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Thank you for your answer, but this does not work. It says "rm: ./.._.iTunes Preferences.plist.wMrHGd: No such file or directory" for every file. – Charles Mar 22 '11 at 14:25
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