USB Flash Drive troubleshooting
I know this isn’t the best “first post of the year” but the reason I’m writing this post really made my day. As you may know from my previous post, I own a Sandisk Cruzer USB flash drive to quickly share files around my friends and family. It’s been slowly filling up over the time I’ve had it and it’s come to a point where I’ve begun to erase stuff to make space for new things. Now, I’ve only had to delete small things in the past but I’ve recently had to make more room to transfer some movies and songs. I went ahead and deleted stuff to make that space but it seemed that no matter what I deleted, no extra space was being created! The “Available Space” was a frozen number that refused to increase no matter what I deleted. I ejected the drive and re-inserted it, I double checked that I had actually deleted the files, I did everything I could but nothing worked.
Now, I have to mention that I’ve had this flash drive before my Mac so I had no idea that the obstacle I was facing was actually because I didn’t know how deleting things off of flash drives work on a Mac. I soon realized that when you delete something off a flash drive, it goes to your drive’s “.Trashes” folder, which essentially is a virtual folder that is controlled by your Mac’s Trash. If you want to permanently delete the files you’ve “deleted” on your flash drive, all you need to do is empty the Trash – the one on your Dock. The solution was so simple, I can’t believe I missed it!
So where you have it. If there’s anyone out there who needed that, you’re welcome! Just plug in your flash drive, delete unwanted files, EMPTY YOUR TRASH, and eject.
