Deleting files doesn't free up space
The washed out appearance happened to me once on a failed copy, in my case the files all had an improper creation date. In fact changing the date on the file fixed the issue for me. I think I used the info on this page to change the created date of the files. http://blog.grapii.com/2010/07/change-a-files-creationmodified-date-on-mac-os-x/