RED minus sign on folder - can't access files inside

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Level 1

25 points

RED minus sign on folder - can't access files inside

Some folders on my hard drive have suddenly appeared with a small minus sign surrounded by a red circle located in the lower right of the folder icon. When this happens I cannot access any of the files inside, and the folder is showing 0 items. So far all of these happen to be photo files inside - not sure if that makes any difference. Sometimes the minus sign will disappear on its own and then everything will be back to normal so I know the files are there I just can't access them. I've tried everything I can think of to get the files to be recognized but so far nothing. Does anyone know what is causing this and how to fix it? Thanks...

G5 intel, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jan 5, 2008 7:47 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 5, 2008 8:06 AM in response to Tim Ernst1

You could delete your com.apple.desktop.plist and see if that helps, or do a get info on one of the minus marked folders and see who the owner is.

ps. there is no G5 intel machines, only dual core PPC G5.

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Answer 2

Tim Ernst1 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 5, 2008 8:16 AM in response to Donald Palmer

Thanks for your reply!

Yup, I tried the ownership thing but it was of no help, and these folders are no different than all the rest on my harddrive, nor was anything done to them. I just copied a folder to another harddrive and everything was fine after the move. There must be some link that is being broken on some of these folders for some unknown reason, and without me doing anything to the folder.

Hum, it is a G5 with an intel processor - doesn't that make it an intel G5? I never use my full name either - kind of silly and a waste of pixels!

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Answer 3

Tim Ernst1 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 5, 2008 8:58 AM in response to Donald Palmer

It copied the full contents of the file onto another drive and that folder is normal. But the folder I copied from that has the minus sign still shows zero. Very weird. I had three folders do this today, and one of them returned to normal on its own - I'm still trying to figure out the other two. I also have an external drive that has a bunch of these folders like this, all within a single master folder - must be something amiss with that parent folder but whatever it is did not happen to the rest of the folders on that drive.

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Answer 4

Tim Ernst1 Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 5, 2008 9:28 AM in response to Donald Palmer

It has done this on both internal and external drives. I just found that I can copy the bad folder over to another drive and then back to the original drive again and the folder returns to normal. Got to be something very simple, my simple mind just can't figure it out...

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Answer 5

Jan 5, 2008 8:42 AM in response to Tim Ernst1

Did it copy it or make an alias of it?
I have a friend that has a duo core PPC G5, that's where I got the info from.
Yea, I never use a 1 in my name.

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Answer 6

Jan 5, 2008 9:09 AM in response to Tim Ernst1

Is this drive an external or internal?

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