Deleting .Trashes

[smithy]

Hi,

I have a (mac/pc) USB drive that i use quite regurally to transfer files to and from pc's and macs. However what i have realised is whenever i delete something off it in OS X, it still stores those files in the .Trashes folder. So to clean it up i have to use windows to delete the .Trashes folder. But to make it more complicated i don't have Xp at home only 98SE on VPC and it doesn't let my USB flash drive come through. So what is the best way to delete the files on the drive in OS X?

Disk Utility, and erase the drive but wouldn't this make it a non mac/pc drive then ?

Thanks in advance and an urgent reply would be sooo helpful !

[ElDiabloConCaca]

If you delete something, then empty the trash, the .Trashes directory should be empty -- if you simply leave those items in the trash, they haven't been deleted yet and will reside inside the .Trashes folder.

Perhaps you're leaving the files in the Trash, and not emptying the trash... I don't think there's a good way to get rid of the .Trashes folder permanently -- but you can make sure it doesn't take up any space on the drive by fully emptying the Trash.

[MrNivit1]

Also, Disk utility can format a USB flash disk for windows format (I've done it plenty of times). Also, since you have a PC, why not let the PC format it? The mac will still be able to read it afterwards.