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From: Adam.Frix@p2.f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Empty Folder Problem
Message-ID: <68936.26E3FE74@cmhgate.FIDONET.ORG>
Date: 1 Sep 90 22:55:34 GMT
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Adam Schabtach   writes in a message on 08/30/90 at 18:53:37 ...

AS>  However, the way I deal with Folders From Hell (TM) is by dragging the
AS>  m onto the desktop (usually conveniently close to the Trash) 
AS>  and renaming them something like 'From Hell' or 'Dead.' Then 
AS>  the next time I boot or restart, I can throw them in the Trash 
AS>  and they stay there. It seems that the restart takes care of 
AS>  them (at least on my system)...


No, what you're describing is the Folder from Heck.  If you can reboot and trash
 
 the folder, it's not from Hell.  The Folder from Hell cannot be trashed, no
matter what.  Here's something I archived from the net awhile back, and I 
guarantee
it works--because I've tried it:


I've had these kind of folders around for some time too ... until
yesterday!  Thanks to some almost correct suggestions that came
accross the net, I DID get rid of them.  The procedure I followed was:

1.)     Make absolutely sure there were no invisible/locked files in the
        folder by using MacSnoop to verify emptiness. (You can use several
        other tools as well like ResEdit.)

2.)     Rename the folder(s) to HellFolderN or something you KNOW is
        unique on your disk where N is 1, 2, etc. for as many
        HellFolders as you have.  By renaming them all you will only
        need search the disk once in the steps below to fix all of
        them.

3.)     Using MacSnoop (or some other suitable disk editor), open the disk
        volume and do an ASCII search for the string HellFolder (without 
        the appended digit).

4.)     If the string HellFolderN is immediately followed by 0100 0000 XXXX
        hex, then change XXXX to 0000, this is the valence word in the
        directory entry (the 01 tells you it is a directory entry).
        NOTE: the 00 following the 01 and the 0000 need not be zeros but
        they always were in my cases, these are reserved and flag bytes.

5.)     Repeat steps 3.) and 4.) for **ALL** occurrences of HellFolder to
        be found on the disk.  This step is necessary since directory
        entries get moved around and you want to make sure you get the
        active one and not just some fragment left somewhere on the
        disk.  The searching will take some time if you have a large
        disk.

6.)     Quit MacSnoop and immediately reboot.  (I think this is
        necessary because the OS may be keeping the directory entry in RAM
        or maybe the disk RAM cache is responsible.  All I know is I
        had to do it to be able to trash the folders.)

7.)     After rebooting the HellFolder(s) should be trashable! (They were
        for me.)

If you feel squeemish about this, back up your disk first and practice
on a floppy looking for the directory entries as described above.

If this works for you, post a note to the net so that others may feel
more confident in using the technique and BY ALL MEANS post corrections
if you think I described something incorrectly.

Good Luck!
 


 
 

--  
Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH
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