New user - What is this folder

js29js29
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Be kind, I am a new Mac user.



The other day my 3-year old came over to our new iMac and went nuts pressing the keyboard. No real harm done, but a bunch of desktop items got renamed. Unfortunately a folder has appeared on the desktop that I can't see to get rid of. It behaves EXACTLY like the icon for my iMac HD, except it looks like a folder (no little arrow either, just a plain folder). When I try to delete it, all I have the option of doing is "eject" and I can't do that. Also, when I select "get Info" if has the exact attributes/properties as my external hard drive.



Is this some sort of alias or duplicate? How do I get rid of it?



Thanks,



George

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Take a screenshot of the object you mention and upload it to flickr. Then post the url to that picture in this thread or if you know how post the picture itself do, for me to see it.



    Press "Shift+Apple key+4" in that order, you should see crosshairs appear. Now put those crosshairs left and above that folder, click and hold the left mouse button and drag those crosshairs down and to the right of that object/folder, now leave go the mouse button. You'll then have a screenshot/photo of the folder then on your desktop (usually called Picture1.png), upload that image to flickr. You'll get the URL to that image, below that image in the All Sizes tab on flickr.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    I think your daughter has just probably changed the look of your HD icon. Right click the folder in question and choose Get Info, then in the Get Info window click on the folder icon and then press the backspace key on the keyboard, if my hunch is correct the icon should change back to look like a regular hard disk drive. In this case, to prevent further events like this you can take the HD off of the Desktop, left click on the Desktop then press Command or "Apple key+," and under the general tab uncheck the hard drive icon, job done.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    js29js29 Posts: 44member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    I think your daughter has just probably changed the look of your HD icon. Right click the folder in question and choose Get Info, then in the Get Info window click on the folder icon and then press the backspace key on the keyboard, if my hunch is correct the icon should change back to look like a regular hard disk drive. In this case, to prevent further events like this you can take the HD off of the Desktop, left click on the Desktop then press Command or "Apple key+," and under the general tab uncheck the hard drive icon, job done.



    Here is a picture of the icons on my desktop.





    The folder isn't my external hard drive renamed, as the icon for my external hard drive is still there and funtioning properly.



    Here is an image of the two "Get Info" windows for the external hard drive "X-TERNAL HD" and the rogue folder "4 425" in quesion. Aside from icon and name their properties appear the same.





    However when I double click on the folder "4 425" it opens the same finder window as if I clicked on the iMac hard drive, where as if I double click on the "x-ternal hard drive", it opens the external hard drive in the finder window, as it should.



    So it looks like the folder has the properties of the external drive, but the openning functionality of the internal hard drive.



    Does any of this make any sense?



    Thanks for your help.
  • Reply 4 of 9
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Let me guess, the external hard drive you own has a Firewire cable?
  • Reply 5 of 9
    tednditedndi Posts: 1,921member
    Try unmounting the drive then see if you can delete the folder.



    Have you tried to move the folder to the trash? What happened?



    Try this:



    Unmount the external hard drive. Do this by dragging the external HD icon to the trash. Then unplug the drive. Nothing bad will happen to the drive or the files inside.



    Remount by re-plugging in the drive.



    See if that works.
  • Reply 6 of 9
    js29js29 Posts: 44member
    Yes, the external is a firewire.



    I shut the drive off, and completely disconnected it. Then restarted my iMac. That seemed to get rid of it. I wonder what it was... Oh well, at least it is gone.



    Thanks to all for your help. I REALLY appreciate it.



    I must say in the 4 months I have owned this machine, that is really the only trouble I have had. I am never going back to you know what.



    Thanks again.
  • Reply 7 of 9
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Somehow I think your daughter must have made an alias folder of the external HD, that would make sense seen as the folder was the exact same size as the external HD. If you don't want this to happen again, you should maybe not leave your daughter near your computer unattended, or what I do sometimes is I set the screensaver to activate when I go up to the top left corner of the screen, and I set "require password to wake computer from sleep or screensaver" in the serurity tab of system preferences. So when there's kids around and I don't want to turn my computer off after I've done a little work, I simple move the cursor up to the top left corner of the screen, and then I'm in safe mode.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JS29 View Post


    I must say in the 4 months I have owned this machine, that is really the only trouble I have had. I am never going back to you know what.



    What, I'm curious?
  • Reply 8 of 9
    js29js29 Posts: 44member
    Windows...
  • Reply 9 of 9
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JS29 View Post


    Windows...



    What's that?
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