Directories infinitely deep

[Stupendous Man]

A while ago, I tried out Vista, setting up as a dual boot on my XP Pro system.
After 30 days, I uninstalled it. It took a lot of time to delete the files, since I had to change the ownership for all of them to be able to do so, but eventually I got rid of them all.

The problem now, is that I have a few directories that I can't get rid of. If I click on one of them, it gives me a subdirectory of the same name, and inside that, another one of the same name, and so on, and so on until I get to the max depth allowed under NTFS, (like 15 deep) wherein a message pops up telling me "Can't access this folder: Path is too long"

I also cannot delete the folders. When I do, I get the message
"Cannot delete file: " and no file name is given.

The drive shows no errors under disk checking. Everything works fine, except for being unable to remove these old vista folders.
Any suggestions?

[ShowMe]

Try dropping to a command prompt and using the rm command.

Another trick that occasionally works is to open notepad, browse to that folder & hit delete. This bypasses the handler that explorer.exe uses when scanning files.

[Stupendous Man]

No good. Folders remain.

[ShowMe]

Have you tired alternative delete programs?

http://www.allworldsoft.com/software/12-391-delete.htm may work, using the /R option.

And, sorry, it's not the rm command in Windows. It's rd (remove directory). Use rd <directory name> /S to remove the directory & all its subdirectories.

[Rob Lister]

You might want to review this review of Vista.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

Snip

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection

Peter Gutmann, pgut001@cs.auckland.ac.nz
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
Last updated 7 February 2007
Distributed under the Creative Commons license (see Appendix)

(A note to readers: The reaction to what started out as an obscure technical post to a security mailing list has been rather unexpected and overwhelming, so I'm totally buried in Vista email at the moment. Please be patient when expecting replies, and apologies if I can't reply to all messages).

Executive Summary

Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry.

Executive Executive Summary

The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history [Note A].

[JLam]

Wow, that sounds so user-friendly.

[Kopji]

Might take the drive out and install it in a Vista machine as a second drive. See if you can delete the directories from Vista OS and then move it back. This sounds like a very Microsoft kind of solution... (Yeah, I really have no idea).

[cyborg]

Sounds like there's some screwed up block references on that NTFS disk - creating a circular and infinite directory. Guess how well a recursive delete procedure is going to work there? Could very well appear valid to a disk scan as well.
Not sure what to suggest really - I couldn't find anything relevant.

[MortFurd]

I think what you've got is a hardlink within a directory that links back to the parent directory.

Here's a nifty tool that might help you get a handle on the problem. (http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html)

Here's an MS utility that might be of some use as well. (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/fsutil_hardlink.mspx?mfr=true)

[Stupendous Man]

Thanks guys. Vista couldn't delete it, and I guess I'll just leave them for now.

[MetalPig]

"Can't access this folder: Path is too long"
I've had messages like this. I solved it by renaming the folder to a name that's only 1 character. That shortens the path, and hopefully to something short enough for XP to handle.

[Stupendous Man]

I've had messages like this. I solved it by renaming the folder to a name that's only 1 character. That shortens the path, and hopefully to something short enough for XP to handle.

It won't allow a rename.
Thanks anyway