Most external hard drives for Mac come with a hidden file called “.ds_store.” This file is automatically created by the Finder application and contains information about how the contents of a folder are displayed. While this file can be useful, it can also take up a lot of space on your hard drive.
If you want to delete it, you can do so using the Terminal application.
- Connect your external hard drive to your Mac computer
- Open a Finder window and click on the “External disks” section in the sidebar
- Find the hidden files or folders that you want to delete and select them
- Right-click on the selected items and choose “Delete”
Credit: www.youtube.com
How Do I Find Hidden Files on My External Hard Drive Mac?
There are a few different ways to locate hidden files on your external hard drive Mac. The first way is to use the Terminal application. In the Finder, navigate to your Applications folder and open the Utilities folder.
Within this folder, locate and double-click on the Terminal application. Once Terminal is open, type in the following command:
“defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE” (without quotes).
Press Enter/Return. You may be prompted for your password – enter it and press Enter/Return again. Finally, type in “killall Finder” (without quotes) and press Enter/Return one last time.
The next method is to use a third-party app like Path Finder or Funter. These apps will allow you to view all of the files on your system, including hidden ones. To use either of these apps, simply launch them and then browse through your folders until you find what you’re looking for.
The final method is to manually show hidden files in the Finder itself. This can be done by opening up a new Finder window and then pressing Command+Shift+Period (.). This will cause all hidden files and folders to become visible within that particular window only – they will still be hidden from other windows unless you repeat this process within them as well.
How Do I Delete Hidden Files on My Usb Mac?
When you format a USB drive on your Mac, any hidden files that were on the drive are deleted. However, if you just want to delete specific hidden files from your USB drive, you can do so using the Terminal.
To delete hidden files from your USB drive using the Terminal:
1. Connect the USB drive to your Mac.
2. Open the Terminal application. You can find this in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder.
3. Type in the following command, replacing “name-of-usb-drive” with the name of your USB drive: rm -rf /Volumes/name-of-usb-drive/.*
4. Press Enter.
All of the hidden files on your USB drive will now be deleted!
Why Can’T I Delete Files from External Hard Drive Mac?
If you’re using a Mac, you might be wondering why you can’t delete files from your external hard drive. The answer is simple: it’s because of the way that macOS treats external drives.
When you connect an external drive to your Mac, macOS automatically mounts the drive and assigns it a mount point.
By default, this mount point is located in /Volumes/ . Once the drive is mounted, you can access its contents just like any other folder on your computer.
However, there’s a key difference between how macOS treats internal and external drives.
With an internal drive, all of its contents are stored within the same file system as the rest of your Mac’s files. This means that when you delete a file from an internal drive, it’s permanently gone (unless you have a backup).
With an external drive, however, things work differently.
When you delete a file from an external drive, macOS doesn’t actually remove the file from the drive. Instead, it simply marks the space occupied by that file as free space that can be overwritten by new data. The actual data itself remains on the drive until it’s overwritten by something else.
This explains why you can’t delete files from an external hard drive on a Mac: because they’re not really being deleted at all! If you want to permanently remove files from an external hard drive, you need to use a special utility that will overwrite the free space on the drive with random data (this process is sometimes called “shredding”). Only then will your deleted files be truly gone forever.
How Do I Hide Hidden Files on My External Hard Drive?
If you’re looking to hide hidden files on your external hard drive, there are a few different methods you can use. One popular method is to simply prefix the filename with a period, which will make it hidden in most operating systems. Another method is to create a .
htaccess file in the root directory of your hard drive and add the following line: RedirectMatch 404 /\.
Of course, if you’re really looking to keep someone from snooping around on your hard drive, you’ll want to encrypt it with a tool like TrueCrypt.
How to Clear Hard Drive Space on Mac + Delete Hidden Files
How to Show Hidden Files on External Hard Drive Mac
If you’re a Mac user, you may find that sometimes you need to show hidden files on your external hard drive. There are a few different ways to do this, and we’ll walk you through each one.
1. The first way is to use the Terminal.
Open the Terminal application, which can be found in the Utilities folder within Applications. Then, type in the following command:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
Hit Enter, and then type in the following command:
killall Finder
This will restart the Finder application and all of your hidden files should now be visible on your external hard drive (and anywhere else on your computer).
If you want to hide them again, just follow these same steps but replace TRUE with FALSE at the end of the first command.
2. Another way to show hidden files is by using a third-party file viewer such as Path Finder or XtraFinder. These applications add an option to view Hidden Files right within their interface, so all you have to do is open up the program and check that option off before browsing through your files.
3. Finally, if none of those options work for you or if you just prefer a graphical interface, there is a setting within macOS that will allow you to see all hidden files right in the Finder app itself. To do this, open up a new Finder window and then go to View > Show View Options (or hit Command+J). From here, simply check off “Show Hidden Files” and all of your hidden files should now be visible within any Finder window!
Conclusion
If you’re using a Mac and have an external hard drive, you might be wondering how to delete hidden files on the drive. While it’s not difficult to do, there are a few things you need to know before you get started.
First, it’s important to know that there are two types of hidden files on Macs: those that are visible in the Finder and those that are hidden from view.
To see all of the files on your external hard drive, including hidden ones, open up a Terminal window and type in “defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE.” This will make all files visible in the Finder, regardless of whether or not they’re marked as being hidden.
Once you’ve done this, go ahead and open up the external hard drive in the Finder.
You should now see all of the files that were previously hidden. To delete any of these files, simply select them and press the “Command+Delete” keys (or right-click on them and choose “Move to Trash”).
And that’s all there is to it!
Deleting hidden files from your external hard drive is easy once you know how to do it.