16gb usb stick showing full? but its empty

[volcom883]

hi,

this happened me twice i wonder if the usb stick is faulty.
basically when i check the size of my pen drive it shows there is 13gb but there is only 1gb of stuff on there?

i already formatted the pen drive drive and its totally fine now.

however i was told by someone that i needed to empty my mac's trash in order to get the pen drive empty too. is it true?

thanks in advance

[fireshot91]

Yes.

If you're deleting stuff off the flash drive, and it goes to your Trash Can, you need to empty the trash can to clear the space off your flash drive.

[John White]

Fireshot, could you say what's going on here?

I'm running OS X 10.6.2, moved a 4gb folder to the trash from my 16Gb stick, no change in available, as you said. Then chose 'Put Back' from the Trash, and back it went, still no change in available.

Do you think the FAT32 file system on the stick is not being properly handled? I'm a bit suspicious because other odd things have happened.

[BEEFc58]

I had the same problem before. When using those drives, sometimes hidden files are created and fill up the drive without you knowing it. Here is a link to how to show these files so that you can delete them and clear the drive:

http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2008/04/show-hidden-files.html

[eron]

Yeah, I had the same problem. I thought my usb drive was full. Ended up, some large video files were 'hidden' and not deleted like it was meant to.
Only discovered that when I was trying to transfer the files over to another usb, on a WINDOWS.

[iShater]

Yes.

If you're deleting stuff off the flash drive, and it goes to your Trash Can, you need to empty the trash can to clear the space off your flash drive.

This is the answer you are looking for.

Most of the other hidden files are too small to make that big of a difference, however, the way the trash works in OSX is that the files are removed to the trash folders but only truly deleted when you empty the trash.

Nothing wrong with your USB drive.

[Jaro65]

This is the answer you are looking for.

Most of the other hidden files are too small to make that big of a difference, however, the way the trash works in OSX is that the files are removed to the trash folders but only truly deleted when you empty the trash.

Nothing wrong with your USB drive.

Agree. And I assume that this worked for the OP. As soon as you empty the trash on your Mac, your USB drive should empty out.