User profile for user: BonafideBrand
BonafideBrand Author
User level: Level 1
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Is there such a thing as a hidden folder virus on Mac?

Hi good evening, Something I discovered with my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) Processor 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 Mem. 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 and my flash drives. It could be a virus on my Mac which is almost unheard of these days. What seems to happen is that I would plug the USB into the Mac to copy something and when I plug it into the Windows 8.1 Dell Laptop it pops up showing some hidden folders and it even makes a copy of the existing files and shows hidden files of them. The USB then does not function properly so I then have to format it. I tried a brand new USB with no files on it and took some screen shots of what I'm speaking about. I also made sure that the problem was not my Windows machine. Cause before plugging it into the Mac I plugged it into the Windows Machine twice just to make sure noting was showing up.

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This is the empty flash drive.(Note I have turned on: Show hidden files and folders.)

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This is the same empty flash drive on my mac.

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This is the same flash drive when inserted back into the dell.User uploaded file

It shows up like this where i can't access it sometimes.

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So I have to resort to formatting it for it to return to normal.

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Any ideas or solutions anyone?

Posted on Jan 21, 2015 3:45 PM

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5 replies
User profile for user: John Galt
John Galt
User level: Level 10
155,696 points

Jan 21, 2015 5:26 PM in response to BonafideBrand

"Is there such a thing as a hidden folder virus on Mac?"


No.


The hidden files are normal and are present on any properly formatted Mac volume. If you want both Windows and your Mac to be able to read and write that volume, it needs to be formatted in a format readable by both. Unless your Windows PC has a means of reading Mac OS X Extended format (I'm not aware of any), choose FAT. Your Mac will then be able to read and write to it and so will your PC.

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User profile for user: Drew Reece
Drew Reece
User level: Level 6
10,684 points

Jan 21, 2015 6:00 PM in response to BonafideBrand

The disk is formatted FAT (4th image).


Mac OS uses it's own filesystem as described by John Galt, Mac OS Extended. This format supports 'metadata' like file tags & Spotlight comments.


Other File systems like FAT do not support this type of metadata, so OS X will attempt to preserve the metadata when another filesystem type is used. This causes the creation of '._filename.xxx' files. These can be deleted with very few side effects. Look at Blue Harvest if you want to get rid of these & some other Mac hidden files on this disk - do not run it on a boot or Mac formatted disk.

http://www.zeroonetwenty.com/blueharvest/


The other items are also normal…

.Trashes is the disk's 'trash folder', files to be deleted are stored here until the trash is emptied in OS X.

.Spotlight-V100 is the database for Spotlight searching this disk, add the disk to the Spotlight privacy section to remove this item.

.fsevents is to do with file system events (a kind of history of file changes).


Your best bet is to ignore these & avoid deleting or moving them on the PC.


The 'reformat error' you complain about is curious - did you safely remove the disk before disconnecting it? If the error continues consider trying another USB stick, this one could be faulty.

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Is there such a thing as a hidden folder virus on Mac?

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