As the name implies, invisible files and folders are those that cannot be seen in the Finder, whether they reside on the desktop or in a window. Invisible files and folders have an internal flag set that tells the Finder not to display them.
Important: A file or folder is typically invisible for a reason. Deleting or modifying one of them may cause unpredictable results. Unless you know the outcome of your modification, you should not make changes to an invisible file or folder.
Sherlock: Finding Invisible Files or Folders
Step 1
Open Sherlock.
Step 2
Click the Find File tab within the Sherlock window.
Step 3
Choose the volume(s) you wish to search from the Find Items pop-up menu.
Step 4
While holding down the Option key, click the leftmost Search Criteria pop-up menu. The pop-up menu contains four additional search criteria at the bottom of the menu. (See Figure 1.) Choose Visibility and release the Option key. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 1 Additional search criteria
Figure 2 Visibility search criteria
Step 5
Click Find .
Sherlock 2: Finding Invisible Files or Folders
Step 1
Open Sherlock 2.
Step 2
Click the Files channel. (See Figure 3).
Figure 3 Files channel
Step 3
Enable custom searching by clicking the Custom radio button and then clicking Edit (See Figure 4). The More Search Options window opens.
Figure 4 Custom search criteria
Step 4
Click the checkbox to enable the "is Invisible" option. (See Figure 5.)
Figure 5 Advanced options
Step 5
Click OK.
For more information on deleting invisible files and folders found by Sherlock and Sherlock 2, please see article 30726: "Sherlock, Sherlock 2: Deleting Invisible Files and Folders"
For information on how to find invisible files and folders with system software prior to Mac OS 8.5, please see article 16989: "System 7.5-Mac OS 8.1: Additional Find File Search Options"