[boycat]

Hi
I've used two G4 Powerbooks, a G4 MDD, some intel Mac Minis, and an older G3 that just barely run tiger.

I've tested this with a Cruzer Mini 256M, a memorex TravelDrive 1G, and a Sony FileVault 2G drive.

When I insert these drives into a USB port, the contents show in a finder window just fine.

There is a file named "EA" that shows up with no icon or a black icon on all three drives, no matter which computer I'm on. When I click it, it disappears.

Using terminal, here's what I see:
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ ls
EA
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ ls -asl
ls: EA: No such file or directory
total 32
32 drwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 16384 Apr 20 15:30 .
0 drwxrwxrwt 9 root admin 306 Apr 20 14:08 ..
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ file EA
EA: cannot open (EA)
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ ls
EA
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ ls -alsR
ls: EA: No such file or directory
total 32
32 drwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 16384 Apr 20 15:30 .
0 drwxrwxrwt 9 root admin 306 Apr 20 14:08 ..
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ touch test.txt
mkdjre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ mkdir testdir
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ touch testdir/test2.txt
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ ls -alsR
ls: EA: No such file or directory
total 64
32 drwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 16384 Apr 20 15:40 .
0 drwxrwxrwt 9 root admin 306 Apr 20 14:08 ..
0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 0 Apr 20 15:40 test.txt
32 drwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 16384 Apr 20 15:40 testdir

./testdir:
total 64
32 drwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 16384 Apr 20 15:40 .
32 drwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 16384 Apr 20 15:40 ..
0 -rwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 0 Apr 20 15:40 test2.txt
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ ls
EA test.txt testdir
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ rm -rf *
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ ls -alsR
ls: EA: No such file or directory
total 32
32 drwxrwxrwx 1 jre jre 16384 Apr 20 15:40 .
0 drwxrwxrwt 9 root admin 306 Apr 20 14:08 ..
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $ ls
EA
jre@potmos:/Volumes/JRE-STUB $



So... What the hell is EA, and where does it go when you look for it, and why is it only visible when you're not looking for it?

is it.. like... a ghost or something? or a conscience? or like my social life?




-jre

[JKT]

Reformat the drives - I'm willing to bet that they are FAT32 rather than HFS+. It doesn't matter if you reformat and choose FAT32 again, but the file is evidently causing OS X problems and a reformat will get rid of it.

[monkeybrain]

I reformatted a flash drive yesterday and the only option was something like 'Windows File format (FAT)'. After the reformat I did a get info and it had been formatted as FAT16, so how can we format as FAT32? Using the Terminal?

[JKT]

Given that I haven't done it for over a year, it is probable that I haven't remembered the details exactly right... if only FAT16 is available, then only FAT16 is available.

[monkeybrain]

Oh ok, thanks JKT. It's strange it seems only FAT16 is available, because you can definitely format a normal hard disk as FAT32. It could just be my weird flash drive, which is partitioned into two disks (one the size of a floppy for unknown reasons) and appears to be impossible to reformat into one drive because Disk utility will only see them as separate drives.

[seanc]

I'm 99% sure i've seen this problem when I've been in Windows too although these are on USB drives that have been used on a Mac. I don't know what the file is for but Windows doesn't like it either (errors in copying when trying to back my memory stick up) so it's not platform specific, or maybe it is, depending on which way you look at it.

[JKT]

IIRC, they could be something to do with encryption or DRM. E.g. if the drive shipped with a "free" song or something on it.