how to show hidden files?

Hi there, actually thsi How To section is for guides not questions, but a friendly mod will move it for you.

The answer to your question is, you shouldn't show these files. Sounds patronizing I know, but more almost everyone its not a good idea, it becomes too easy to delete something vital. Personally, if i need to access hidden files I just use the Terminal (its an application in Applications>Utilities, basically a bash shell if you know what that is).

If you REALLY need to have finder show these files, (and this is at your own risk) go to the terminal and type:

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

And hit return, then afterwards:

Code: 
killall Finder
and hit return

To undo it, do the same but replace "TRUE" with "FALSE".

Why do you want to see these files by the way, we may be abel to help in another way.
 
oh. the problem lies with my thumbdrive. i wanted to put in files, but i realised there was no space in it cos there was hidden files in it that were trash and i didn't need it.

any idea how else i could go around solving the prob then?
 
Well you have a few options. First, if you put the files in the trash, just plugging the thumbdrive in and emptying the Mac trash should clear it. Second, you could reformat the thumdrive by Going to Applications>Utilities>Disc Utility, opening it, selecting the thumbdrive from the list on the left, selecting the 'erase' tab and erasing the drive to FAT32 format, but this will clear ALL data on the drive. Might be the easiest though.

Finally, you can do all this using the terminal, but if you don't have experience its a little intimidating, and has some potential to go wrong. Personally, I recommend any OSX user with an interest in the guts of their machine to go and find a tutorial for the Terminal as its just useful.
 
ok thanks! i've tried emptying my mac trash before but it didn't help, that's why i posted at the forum. but i guess i'll stick to the second option of reformatting my thumbdrive. i'd just have to make sure that everything i need is on my desktop before i clear it then. shouldn't be a prob right?

thanks once again!
 
Yep, just drag the files to the desktop or another folder, then reformat the thumbdrive.
 
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