Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!hrc!valley!pfluegerm
From: pfluegerm@valley.UUCP (Mike Pflueger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: My machine is possessed - Folder from Hell
Summary: APPLE - PLEASE HELP
Message-ID: <489b3b84.15840@valley.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 90 21:44:49 GMT
References: <15543@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <2840@goanna.oz.au> <1945@acad.cut.oz>
Organization: AG Communication Systems
Lines: 37


Well, it's funny, but I recently got one of those folders from hell too.
Seems to be a fairly common problem.

And it's not something simple like an invisible or locked file;
rebooting, rebuilding the desktop, or anything like that will clear it.
I've seen a lot of simple solutions by people who obviously are taking
a shot in the dark, but no real solutions by anyone who has had and
cleared the problem.  I know the Mac and its routines pretty well, and
the solution to this is not an obvious one.

I'd say it's pretty definite the directory is screwed up...

Yes, I've tried DiskTop, DiskExpress, SUM, 1st Aid HFS, Fedit, ResEdit,
cursing, kicking, and incantations.  Haven't yet tried the virgin
sacrifice idea though - I will if I find one.  :-)  

None of these can find a problem or clear the problem.  I know that
reformatting the disk will solve it (I've had this on floppies before),
but this is not my first choice for a full 100 meg hard disk.

The idea of the number of children in the directory being decremented
beyond 0 sounds plausible, except I would think DiskExpress or SUM would
have found this.  Also, GetInfo reports 0 files in the directory, but
they might say 0 for anything < 1.

I've thought about writing a program to go in and look at this bad
directory, and ultimately fix such problems once I've figured it out,
but is this any way to run a user-friendly computer?

Could we maybe hear from an Apple file expert on this problem?

-- 
Mike Pflueger @ AG Communication Systems (formerly GTE Comm. Sys.), Phoenix, AZ
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