Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!netnews.upenn.edu!eniac.seas.upenn.edu!hodas
From: hodas@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Josh Hodas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Folders from Hell
Keywords: Folders that won't die
Message-ID: <11423@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 27 May 89 21:39:10 GMT
References: <1989May15.103346.5557@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <2096@ccnysci.UUCP>
Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu
Reply-To: hodas@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP (Josh Hodas)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 33

In article <2096@ccnysci.UUCP> alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) writes:
>
>Sounds like a case of your directory sturcture being corrupted. The Folders
>that Won't Die have a valence greater than zero even though there aren't
>any files in them. There is a way to fix this, and I don't know how to do
>it offhand. It would require some very careful perusal of Inside Mac Vol. 4
>to figure out how to fix it.
>
>I'd suggest that you back things up file-by-file and reformat the disk. That's
>not a bad idea every once in a while anyway.

Actually, in the times I have encountered this problem, the problem was a 
valence of less than zero (typically -1).  Apparently a negative valence
is automatically displayed as "0 items" in the finder window, but does show 
up in an attempt to trash the folder.  I have forced the folders to be trash-
able by putting a dummy file into them, thus making the screwed up valence 1.

Note though, that while the folder may go away, the directory structure is
probably still screwed (I have had Disk First Aid say "unable to verify disk"
after such operations) and it may still be best to back-up and reformat as 
Alexis reccomends.

Josh


-------------------------

Josh Hodas    (hodas@eniac.seas.upenn.edu)
4223 Pine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

(215) 222-7112   (home)
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