"trashes"

I was doing a virus scan on my passport element 500 today and noticed that it went through a bunch of files called “trashes”. I was thinking that it probably was looking at files that I deleted from the drive?? 

  1. Is that true? How do I know what the files are? They don’t come up if I select it under “my computer”.

  2. How do I get rid of them if, indeed they are purposefully trashed/recycled items since they don’t come up…

Just want to clear off the dust.

Thanks

HI there, most antivirus programs can see files that we can’t because they are just hidden. The best way to clean a drive is to write zeroes to it.

Thanks, but can you translate “write zeros to it” from computerese to English?

Sure :slight_smile:

If you have the old Passport Essential then this tool (DLG) will give you the option to write zeros to the drive, it will fully clean it and won’t even have a format after it is completed (So you’ll need to manually format it again to use the drive).

If you have one of the newer Passport Essential then you’ll need a more powerful software to clean it like HD Tune or MiniTool Partition Wizard or Acronis to name some examples.

Hm. I bought it last summer. Old or new? What’s the difference between doing what you are describing or erasing it through disc utility (on my mac)?

It would do the same, I only gave those suggestions because I thought you only had a PC :) 

Thank you thank you. I have both. (Obviously.) The drive was a great help when i was traveling with my netbook and brought photographs home to the mac. It’ll probably live its life out as a second back up for my mac or to hold my lightroom catalog. Haven’t decided yet.