USB flash drive deleting files?

Question

Level 1

0 points

USB flash drive deleting files?

I just got a 16 GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro and I've used it to store files. But when I try to delete the files from the flash drive, it still takes up the space that the files took up before I moved them to the trash. I've tried emptying the trash.

How can I fix this??

Thanks!!

iMac8,1, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 20, 2009 6:26 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Apr 20, 2009 6:33 PM in response to EKohrs

Hi EKohrs: When you say you have emptied the trash, has the USB flash drive been still attached and mounted?

Stedman

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 20, 2009 6:34 PM in response to EKohrs

When you "tried emptying the trash," did the Trash empty? Did the trash icon on the Dock become an empty trash can? When you opened the Trash, was it clear of any items?

If you are using this flash drive only with Macs, you may want to try reformatting it to a Mac format. Use Disk Utility Erase tab and choose +Mac OS Extended (journaled)+ as the format.

Reply

Answer 3

EKohrs Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 20, 2009 7:55 PM in response to stedman1

yes. the flash drive was attached when i emptied the trash.

thanks

Reply

Answer 4

EKohrs Author

Level 1

0 points

Apr 20, 2009 7:58 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

yes. the trash emptied. the icon is an empty trash can and there are no items when i open it in the finder.

if i reformat it, will i be able to transfer files between mac and windows because i will be doing that?

thanks.

Reply

Answer 5

den.thed

Level 9

77,050 points

Apr 20, 2009 8:40 PM in response to EKohrs

Try ejecting and disconnecting the flash drive then reconnecting it to see if the space has returned?

MS-DOS FAT32 is your best bet for sharing files between Mac and Windows.

http://www.macworld.com/article/51972/2006/07/ww_drives.html

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 20, 2009 9:26 PM in response to EKohrs

If you need to use it with a Mac and Windows PC, then you cannot format it as +Mac OS Extended+. However, you may will want to format it using a Mac. Use Disk Utility as described in the previous post, but select the volume format +MS-DOS (FAT)+.

Reply

Answer 7

Apr 22, 2009 7:27 AM in response to EKohrs

You have to empty your trash can on the desktop to remove the trash files from the USB card, from what I have read.
If you stick it in a windows PC you will see that it jst deletes the files to a file called 'trashes' on the same usb drive.
This would be why no space is free.
Either dlete this folder on a windows machine or empty the desktop can on your mac.

Reply

Answer 8

Apr 22, 2009 7:35 AM in response to handcrafted

My bad, sorry. I see you have already done this. But for anybody just switched to mac like me, this bent my head a bit untill I did a google.

Odd that the reformat didn't fix the prob as obviously this would of got rid of any corrupt data tracking.

Reply