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Question

Dropbox Install in Data Partition between OS X and Windows 7

Feb 10, 2015 11:54AM PST

I have a data partition between OS X Mavericks and Windows 7 Boot Camp. I have my Dropbox folder in the partition. I have tried using it in the past formatted as exfat. This was unsatisfactory in that it would not stay indexed in OS X, and there were other issues.

I have now formatted the Data partition as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then on Windows 7 I have a trial version of Paragon HFS+ for Windows installed.

Here is my issue. OS X creates a bunch of files in Dropbox ending in com.dropbox.attributes. There is at least one of these almost for every file in Dropbox. From OS X these do not sync to the Dropbox server and are hidden. However, in Windows they are visible and sync to the Dropbox server.

I would like to do two things:
1. Hide them in Windows 7
2. Prevent them from syncing to the Dropbox server in Windows 7

(By the way, I have already tried running a command in Windows that hides all of these files. It only worked temporarily. As soon as Dropbox was back up and running they re-appeared.)

Please let me know if you need any more information or clarification.

Much thanks in advance for any input!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Woah, slow down.
Feb 10, 2015 11:07PM PST

The Apple file system uses those files for its own reason. Just because you can see them in another system does not mean they need to go away. It may be time to find some deep technical dissertation on file systems but I must fit this in a few sentences here.

The com.dropbox.attributes files were expected and all that I see here is maybe the user needs to let it slide a bit. There are some that get a little OCD on files and blow up at others or their system.

Yes, I expected them to re-appear.
Bob

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Re:
Feb 11, 2015 2:58AM PST
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Remember that I don't consider this a bug.
Feb 11, 2015 7:08AM PST

There are tomes on the web about Apple File Systems and how these files show when you browse them from Linux, Windows and other OSes. I've seen folk "It is also a fairly common occurrence for a Windows user to delete the "._" extra file with a similar name, because they do not know what it is!" ( http://support.grouplogic.com/?p=1496 ) and then complain about information or metadata loss when they return to the other OS.
Bob

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Answer
a file name is a file name
Feb 11, 2015 3:00AM PST

Or maybe the question for you should be "when is a filename NOT a filename"? I remember when windows when to long filenames, only the short form of them could be seen in DOS. That was unsatisfactory, so now Windows recognizes long file names. DOS continued to see them as short, such as "Program Files" would become "Progra~1" for viewing in DOS. Why would anyone want to go back to that manner of seeing files differently between operating systems?

In fact, people often do exactly the opposite of what you want to do.

http://bucarotechelp.com/computers/winadmin/96010802.asp

You can go back to a file system format earlier than windows 95, but then size of it will be limited to probably 8GB.

http://cquirke.mvps.org/9x/lfns.htm

If I recall correctly (I use linux) in windows there's a way to make a folder or files in a folder be considered "system" files and then anything that would be an extension on the file name won't be seen. It's called "hide extensions for known file types" and it's found in the Folder Options, can be used for an entire drive, or various folders. That would be the first thing I'd try, but you'd have to make the extensions you wanted hidden to be a known file type in windows.

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Re:
Feb 11, 2015 11:13PM PST

I appreciate the input.

I have tested the possibility of running a bat file on startup that did the following (hide and mark them as a "system file"):
attrib +S +H *.dropbox.attributes /S
I learned quickly that the issue is that Dropbox in conjunction with Windows 7 actually creates the com.dropbox.attributes files and that it is not OS X that creates the files. The extended attributes of OS X cause Windows to create them. So, they get created anew every time Dropbox runs in Windows. So, I am planning to just give up on this one and go back to having two Dropbox copies on my machine (in OS X and in Windows).

It is too bad that partitions between OS X and Windows don't play nice. (This is a work machine.) My Data partition at home between two Linux distros and Windows 7 works beautifully, no such issues. I pretty much only use Linux at home. I love Linux because you have access in ways that allow you to find solutions and fix problems or customize exactly how you want the system.

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Is there a method available
Feb 12, 2015 4:41AM PST

to "sync" the two?