Force Spotlight to index hidden/invisible files/folders?

If Spotlight indexes the drive, that includes the system/hidden files. To search them, just add that criteria to your search.

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The System Files option isn't there by default, you have to add it by choosing Other from the search list then checking the appropriate Check Box.

 

Spotlight changed it behaviour to the current in 10.5.

You have to enable this option.

 

It's the same in 10.5 and 10.6, as xUKHCx said. The steps xUKHCx quoted will enable you to find system files in a search. If you're talking about showing the hidden files and folders in Finder, type the following in Terminal, pressing Enter after each line:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder​

To hide them again, repeat the process, replacing TRUE with FALSE

 

this looks like it should solve my 50-gig mystery, but it didn't work with a simple cut and paste into the terminal window. sorry, newb here, any details i'm missing?

 

Did you paste one line at a time, pressing enter after each?

 

You may have better luck using the form that specifies the type of the data:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE

[otherwise 'TRUE' might get written as a string ("true") instead of a boolean (1).]

Edit: if that doesn't "work" immediately, try relaunching Finder.

 

The command will work, with or without the -bool
However, I'm guessing he forgot to relaunch Finder afterwards.

 

tried it again and it worked - files that were previously invisible can now be seen. library says 53 gigs though, and i can barely account for half that. the search continues...

 

Historically true.

However -- around the time Leopard was released -- some users began reporting it had stopped working, and folks (in a few threads around that time) speculated that Apple may have disabled that particular hack. But then the solution turned out to be that simply specifying the -bool type made it work again. In any event: including the type specification is the "canonical" form, and should be encouraged. [i.e., i wouldn't expect it to work otherwise.]