[crystalshong]

Hi,
I hope someone can help me? I googled "._.Trashes" and found this forum because I'm having weird files all over my external HDD. After reading through some other posts, I suppose it has something to do with my Mac? I recently purchased a second-hand Mac from my friend but I've been using a PC all along. Recently I plugged my external HDD into my Mac and when I tried using my HDD on my PC again, I see all these weird files like "._.Trashes", ".DS_Store", "Recycled" and "System Volume Information" among my other files. What is that and would anything happen if I delete it? I tried but it keeps coming back.

The other day, my PC couldn't detect my HDD many times but I kept trying. And then today, all these happened. There is also a "desktop.ini" file in my "My Documents" folder on my PC and other weird files that end with "~$A info.rtf" and stuff popping up all over. Is it a virus or something? I always use Media Player Classic on my PC to watch videos and play individual songs but now I can only play songs and am unable to watch videos. It says, "The file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Folder Options control panel." when I try to play it with Media Player Classic but when I do it with VLC Media Player, it works.

I'm very very clueless with all these because I am terrible at IT so I would really appreciate it if someone could clear my doubts, thank you so much!

[Big Mac]

The Trashes and DS_Store folders are from OS X. Recycled and System Volume Information are from Windows, as is desktop.ini. Anything rtf that you don't recognize in a documents folder can be deleted. You should be able to get rid of Trashes and DS_Store without any issues in Windows, but the others are from Windows and probably should just be hidden instead of being deleted.

[Atheist]

Windows and OS X use different mechanisms for hiding files from view. The unfortunate side effect is that when you have an external drive you share between OS's, you see all the files that aren't intended to be seen.

I use my Mac to connect to Window's shares at work and Finder leaves scores of "hidden" files (they start with a period ".") in all of the folders I browse.

I typically just delete these "." files as my co-workers are continually confounded by them.

[crystalshong]

So I can delete the "." files... How do I hide the Windows files then? And is it my player's problem that I cannot watch my videos, or something to do with the weird files? Because I tried using my Mac to watch those same videos and I didn't succeed.

[ibook_steve]

Use BlueHarvest to automatically remove these types of files.

Steve

[King Bob On The Cob]

Originally Posted by crystalshong 

So I can delete the "." files... How do I hide the Windows files then? And is it my player's problem that I cannot watch my videos, or something to do with the weird files? Because I tried using my Mac to watch those same videos and I didn't succeed.

It is your player's problem that you cannot play those types of video. I'd suggest downloading the software at these links so you can play (most) video through Quicktime. You'll still need RealPlayer, and Intel INDEO (Old format, often in an .avi container usually made by older cameras) to play what's left.

http://www.perian.org/
http://www.flip4mac.com/