John,
Thank you for your speedy reply!
Renaming the directory is not possible. The following error messages are
returned when trying to do so:
* Cannot rename file: Cannot read from source file or disk
I get the same message when trying to delete this directory via Windows
Explorer too except replace "rename" above with "delete."
I've tried the DOS command approach too with every conceivable wildcard
combination.
The following error message is always returned:
* The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
Here are a couple of other interesting points about this directory:
When viewing this directory's info using Properties from Windows Explorer,
the file name looks like this: P^ONE^~1 where the carrot symbols are
actually squares, (but I can't quickly figure out how to put a square in this
response!). The same directory name format is displayed in the list when
selecting Start followed by All Programs.
If I run a dir /x from DOS, I notice the following:
* The short file name (8 character format) is blank, and
* The long file name is ONE+~1 where the + actually is the paragraph
symbol (backwards P with two vertical lines)
I don't know how to interpret these wacky results. It's odd that from DOS,
the file name does not start with P. In fact, output from dir list
files/directories in alphabetical order and it's interpreting this file as
starting with the letter O.
As mentioned above, within DOS I have tried all of these variations (and
more):
* rmdir "P?ONE?~1"
* rmdir "P*ONE*~1"
* rmdir *P*ONE*"
* etc. etc.
I've also tried "chkdsk" with various flags, and a utility called
MoveOnBoot, and about 42 other shareware tools, in addition various Safe Mode
options, and so on.
At this point, I'm thinking about taking a scratch awl to the sector of my
disk where this directory resides!
Thanks again for trying to help! I'm certainly open to other suggestions too.
Brian
"John" wrote:
>
> "Mr Bubba" <Mr (E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:38719D25-D3E4-4A70-B66C-(E-Mail Removed)...
> >I have an empty directory that contains special/unreadable characters in
> >its
> > name. It has been impossible so far to find a way to delete it, and this
> > oddball directory name is causing my backup software to fail when I do a
> > full
> > system backup. Worse yet, this particular directory name resides in the
> > following Windows XP system directory structure:
> >
> > C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Start Menu/Programs
> >
> > I've tried every variation of rm, rmdir, dir /x, and cut/delete from
> > Windows
> > Explorer, etc. I even tried completely reloading Windows XP from my
> > original
> > OS/Drivers CDs. I have a Gateway PC and it appears that this malformed
> > directory may be part of a Phone Tools application installation that was
> > part
> > of my original Gateway OS/Drivers CD package. Maybe it's a virus that was
> > on
> > the orginal CDs. I'm not sure if that's the case, and even if so, I can't
> > find a way to prevent it from loading when I reload Windows XP.
> >
> > Any suggestions on how to get rid of this crazy directory from a Windows
> > system directory?
> >
> > Brian
> >
> Try to rename it to a valid directory name.
> Select the Programs directory so that the problem directory is
> in the right pane of Windows Explorer. Click on the directory to
> highlight it. Wait 5 seconds and click on the directory name again.
> Press the delete key.
> Type XXX
> Hit the enter key.
> If the rename worked, you can now delete the directory.
> If it didn't work, open a command prompt window and change
> to the programs directory.
> Do a remove directory specifying the directory name bracketed in
> double quotes. Every place that there is a special character
> in the name, use a question mark in place of the special
> character. (? is the ambiguous single character, * is the
> ambiguous string character).
>
>
>
>
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