Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!lll-winken!decwrl!shelby!portia!jessica!zelenski From: zelenski@jessica.Stanford.EDU (julie zelenski) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: My machine is possessed - Folder from Hell Message-ID: <9649@portia.Stanford.EDU> Date: 28 Feb 90 22:47:23 GMT References: <15543@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <1990Feb6.213912.26834@ultra.com> <14003@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Sender: USENET News System Reply-To: zelenski@jessica.Stanford.EDU (julie zelenski) Organization: Stanford University Lines: 38 In article <14003@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> englandr@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Scott Englander) writes: >In article <1990Feb6.213912.26834@ultra.com> rich@ultra.com (Rich Fall) writes >>yang@mist.cs.orst.edu (Sherry Yang) writes: >> >>>We have discovered a folder on one of the MacIIs in our lab that has nothing >>>in it, but it will not let us throw it away. It kept coming back with a >> >>My solution? Use a backup program to save the hard disk, then reformat and >>restore. Some Mac hacker out there may know a better solution (and perhaps >>why the problem occurs), but I don't. Yes, this is a case of your directory sturcture being corrupted. The Folders that Won't Die have a non-zero file count even though there aren't any files in them. There is a way to fix this without entirely re-formatting. You will need to take a tool like FEdit or MacSnoop and set the count in the directory to zero. If you're not familiar with the directory structure, play around with a floppy first by making a folder or two, putting a known number of files in each one, and then searching the disk for these values. The easiest way to find the correct area on the disk is to search for the folder name first, then look for the file count number. Once you get this technique down on a floppy, just do the same thing for your undeletable folder on your hard disk. You'll know the proper offset from the name field, so it shouldn't be hard to find the right bytes. Remember what the original byte(s) were that you changed, in case you screw up. Besides, you probably won't be any worse off after the edit than before, given that the folder is trashed already. I've used this technique successfully many times. After setting the file count to zero, all were deletable. One word of caution. Make ABSOLUTELY sure that there are no hidden (off the screen) or invisible files in the folder before you set the count to zero. It takes courage, but it is really not difficult. julie zelenski stanford university