Help with finder

[yettimillan]

Hi, when I put my usb stick in my mac under the search for section in the finder my pics and docs come up. As soon as I take my usb out they all disappear. Does this mean that they are on my mac or usb.

Im really having trouble understanding the relationship between the OS and USB.

Can anyone help?

 

[miles01110]

They're on the USB stick.

Finder's search engine, called Spotlight, can only give results for items it can "see"- if your USB stick isn't plugged in, it has no way of knowing what's on it.

 

[yettimillan]

Ahhhh ok.

Well thank you so much, you have just put it into perspective for me. I didn't know it was a search engine and thought it was a history and transferal tool.