It seems whenever you put a PC disk into a Mac system, MacOS insists on writing garbage files to it and never cleans up the mess it makes. The files are often impossible to delete on a PC system, and you end up reformatting the media to just to get a clean disk again.
Is there any way to make a Mac write the garbage files to its own hard disk instead of contaminating the media?
thanks for any hints
These files are created on volumes that don’t natively support full HFS file characteristics (e.g. ufs volumes, Windows fileshares, etc). When a Mac file is copied to such a volume, its data fork is stored under the file’s regular name, and the additional HFS information (resource fork, type & creator codes, etc) is stored in a second file, with a name that starts with “._”. (These files are, of course, invisible as far as OS-X is concerned, but not to other OS’s; this can sometimes be annoying…)
From:
westwind.com/reference/OS-X/invisibles.html
Hope that helps.
Thanks for the info kozmo, most informative. It’s a shame that Apple didn’t think of anyone but themselves when dreaming that system up. Hardly surprising though.
Contaminated?!? A PC user complaining about contamination? A PC user complaining about thoughtlessness? A PC is contamination – Klez and million other viruses, trojans, dialers, etc.
Ten seconds to reformat a disk and here you are whinging!?!?
How much time have you spent cleaning up viruses, installing patches and security fixes (ie wiping Bill’s arse and you pay for the privaledge) – it probably adds up to months of your life and you complain about reformatting a stinking floppy!!!
Please, feel free to unburden “the rest of us” of your pathetic existence…
Humor: Macworld events schedule
MacWorld Expo 1999
Events Schedule
9:00-9:30 - Wait for Steve Jobs to arrive.
9:30-10:00 - Explain to Steve what’s going on, and that kissing the iMacs in public is a no-no.
10:00-10:30 - Boot up the Macs.
10:30-11:00 - Boot up the Macs… (Continued).
11:00-12:00 - Still waiting for the Macs to boot - Snake dance lady.
12:00-1:00 - Recover crashed Macs - extinguish PowerBooks.
1:00-2:00 - Keynote address - Al Gore discusses how he invented the internet.
2:00-2:05 - Mac user 3D games championship.
2:05-2:05.30 - Discussion of innovative products to be released by Apple.
2:05.30-4:00 - PC users rounded up and killed in McCarthy-like witch hunt.
4:00-5:00 - Dinner - Dead PC users eaten in twisted, cannibalistic, ritual.
Stolen from: www.Ihateapple.com
How about continuing this discussion in the flame forum? I did enjoy the Macworld Events Schedule though.
I don’t get it. What do you mean? That system is necessarily necessary in order to have a workaround for cross-compatibility. At least I can put a PC formated disk into my Mac and it works … every time. PCs just don’t do that and it makes me really frustrated when workting with the printers here. I’ve bought a nifty little program to take care of that:
dataviz.com/products/macopener/
Works like a charm.
However, for most Mac designer users these days working cross-platform, they’ll choose the PC format to work on just in case it has to be ported over to a PC in a moments notice. The resource fork “garbage” that you talk about is therefore technically necessary and has little to do with selfishness or short-sightedness.