USB drive - Can't delete strange files

I use a Toshiba 8GB USB drive. I had been using it for my PC. When I recently bought my first Apple (MacBook Pro), I used this USB drive to transfer some of the files between my mac & pc. But now some of the folders on this drive have strange names e.g. " µÑ?:π\-.>é⌐*". When I try to delete these files or folders containing these files, I get an error saying : "cannot read from source file or disk".
Same thing happened with one of the files in the "Trashes" folder on the USB drive and I can't empty it now.
I have a few questions:
1) Do you know why I got these files in the first place?
2) Do I need them and therefore just not worry about them?
3) Can I delete them and if yes, how?
Thanks,
Mukul

your best bet is to get any data off the drive that you want to save and copy it to a folder on your desktop, etc.
Then use disk utility and format the disk as fat 32, and user the erase option to zero out the drive.
once that is done, move your data back and enjoy.

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Last edited by richs-lxh (2008-09-04 21:58:59)

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