How do I stop Mac creating files on Windows server creating hidden files?

I have my macbook connecting to a windows 2003 server share. Whenever I write a file, either by creating or editing and saving, it creates a hidden file too. I edit filename.doc then I'll also have ._filename.doc in that directory. It's distracting the windows users and causing me to become a little unpopular. How can I prevent those hidden files from being created?

MacBook Pro 15, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 21, 2009 1:56 PM

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4 replies

Jan 21, 2009 2:10 PM in response to duke.s

This happens in part with some Mac files that contain both a resource and a data fork. Windows doesn't know how to handle these files and breaks them apart. Also, Mac OS creates certain hidden files used by the Finder that also get transferred but are no longer hidden on Windows because Windows does not recognize the "." preceding a filename as the Unix shorthand for "invisible."

There are a number of free utilities you will find at VersionTracker or MacUpdate that can prevent this and the hidden files from appearing on the Windows drive.

Zipping files before transfer will also prevent the problem from occurring.

Jan 21, 2009 2:44 PM in response to duke.s

Hi and Welcome to  Discussions!

I can't tell you how to prevent this in the first place, but I can explain to you what happens here: You are saving files to a filesystem that doesn't understand resource forks. This would be your Windows-Server accessed over the network via SMB. On such filesystems OS X automatically creates (and tries to read when opening) these ._filenames to store the information.
Normally these files don't show up in Windows unless the user chooses to view hidden/system files in Explorer.

If interested, here's more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_fork

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How do I stop Mac creating files on Windows server creating hidden files?

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