Help With Cleaning-Up Flash Drive: I have an 8GB flash drive I want to reuse. I opened the drive on my iMac and moved all the files to the trash bin. There is nothing showing on the...

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Help With Cleaning-Up Flash Drive

Sep 15, 2016 14:39:10 #

clixpix Loc: Surprise, Arizona

I have an 8GB flash drive I want to reuse. I opened the drive on my iMac and moved all the files to the trash bin. There is nothing showing on the screen when I open the drive another time so all looks good. Here is the issue. I am trying to save a photo lecture from my Power Point on the desk top machine to the flash drive. The message I get is that the flash drive is full. I see nothing on the drive when I look at it and I do not see any locking option of the drive for me to unlock. How do I clean out a flash drive to reuse it. I am using an iMac and El Capitan OS. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Sep 15, 2016 14:57:14 #

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Depending upon the flash drive there could be an obscure slide button, but of all f.d.s I have ever had none had a lock. On the Mac after plugging the FD in open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility. The Mac should 'see' the FD and show an entry in the left panel. Select that entry and explore the options across the top. You can refirmat the FD in the Partition option, choose 1 partition. There is a file format choice step, so set to suit your needs. You sound Mac savvy, so all this is probably old hat.

Sep 15, 2016 15:03:40 #

clixpix Loc: Surprise, Arizona

John_F wrote:

Depending upon the flash drive there could be an o... (show quote)

Thanks John, Have not heard that one before. I will check into it.

Sep 15, 2016 15:16:56 #

clixpix Loc: Surprise, Arizona

Thanks again John, I tried your suggestion and it worked great. I printed out your note for future reference. Once again the UHH community comes to the aid of one in need.

Sep 15, 2016 15:36:23 #

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

clixpix wrote:

I have an 8GB flash drive I want to reuse. I opene... (show quote)

You did not state it explicitly, but did you EMPTY the trash? Just moving the files to the trash bin on a Flash Drive does not necessarily remove them from the flash drive - if you empty the trash bin with the device still connected it will do so, as will reformatting the drive of course.

There is a hidden folder on the flash drive called .trash that will hold the things you have deleted, unless you EMPTY the trash to regain the space. Reformatting the flash drive of course rewrites the files & folders and effectively frees up all the space as well.

Sep 15, 2016 15:38:39 #

haroldross Loc: Walthill, Nebraska

clixpix wrote:

I have an 8GB flash drive I want to reuse. I opene... (show quote)

On a Mac OS, you need to empty the trash while the flash drive is attached otherwise the flash drive will still have the space taken up by the files in the trash. Viewing the drive in finder will show no files but the space will not be freed up. Formatting the drive also removes the hidden trash files.

Sep 15, 2016 16:28:52 #

clixpix Loc: Surprise, Arizona

Thanks to both dngallegher and haroldross for your additional suggestions. I will also print out your notes and file it for reference. ---Joe

Sep 16, 2016 07:11:54 #