Hidden files on my desktop

Hi there - I've just purchased OSX 5.6 (which is the highest OS I can get for a pre Intel machine I believe) but before it comes I was just doing a general tidy up. When linking my computer to an old G4 PowerBook (using OS9 don't ask why), once mounted I noticed some folders on the desktop of my G5 that do not show up normally. (I can only view them after mounting the G5 PPC onto the G4 PowerBook and looking on there). The folder names are all proceeded by a "." +which I think indicates a hidden file+. I know that there normally are very important files that are purposely hidden and are vital to the OS (e.g. ".DS_Store" etc.) but these particular folders do not seem to be in that category after investigation.
I have a US client and I download lots of very large files via their FTP server using Fetch. When viewing the contents of the strangely named "hidden" folders that I can only see on the G5 once connected to the G4PB I then see very familiar names and enclosed folders from my US client containing around 40Mb of info each that cannot be accessed directly from my G5.
*My questions are:*
What are these files and why are they there - are they aborted efforts of previous FTP downloads?
Are they partial downloads waiting for more info - and if I delete them will it mess everything up?
Can I delete them directly from the G4 PowerBook, the only place I can I can see them?
If not can I purchase some software that will allow be to view hidden files on my G5PPC and evaluate and get rid of them?
Any help would be very much appreciated. Regards - Deano
+PS: If it helps the hidden folders are named:+
.BAHmpVUM
.BAHrDXsQ
.BAHvWION

Thanks again Limnos -
The Fetch people have been back to me already - not bad huh? - and had the following to say:
"+Hi Deane,+
+I'm not sure where those folders are coming from, but I can tell you that they aren't created by Fetch - nothing Fetch does would create such folders. So no, we don't think they are partially downloaded files.+
+I would be a little careful before deleting them. They could just be an artifact of how the Mac OS X file system looks to Mac OS 9; it could be that they are not real copies of files, but just pointers (aliases) to other files on your disk, so deleting the folders and their contents might unexpectedly delete files you really want to keep on your Mac. I would make sure that is not the case before deleting a lot of them; you might want to delete one file you're sure you don't care about first.+
+And you might want to look at them on your G5 directly. You can display hidden files on your G5 by doing the following:+
+* Open the Applications folder.+
+* Open the Utilities folder.+
+* Open the Terminal application.+
+* At the prompt, type:+
+defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES+
+* And then press the Return key.+
+* Then go to the Apple menu and Log Out, or Restart your Mac, for the changes to take effect.+
+Unfortunately showing the hidden folders has a variety of other side effects (such as making all your icons look washed out), so you'll probably only want to do this so you can investigate, and then turn it off again.+
+You can turn it off by following the exact same steps as above, except type NO instead of YES after "AppleShowAllFiles".+
+I hope this helps.+
Thanks,"
Pretty much backs up what you wrote in your first post but I think I'll try the route you suggest in your second and tuck them away somewhere for a week or so to see what happens. If all goes well I'll be back to credit your answer with a solved.
Cheers for the help - Deano

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