Cannot delete a directory. Error message is directory name is invalid

[erik]

I'm having problems in deleting a directory which i never
made...for some reasons, a directory named " . "
appeared on one of my drives and under that directory
there were too many subdirectories which are named com1,
com2, lpt1, lpt2, etc....and all the subdirectories
contains a folder named tagg by belfou. what should i do
to delete the whole subdirectory " . " permanently?
and i wann know also how i got it, thanks

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----
I'm having problems in deleting a directory which i never
made...for some reasons, a directory named " . "
appeared on one of my drives and under that directory
there were too many subdirectories which are named com1,
com2, lpt1, lpt2, etc....and all the subdirectories
contains a folder named tagg by belfou. what should i do
to delete the whole subdirectory " . " permanently?
and i wann know also how i got it, thanks
.

Check for viruses.

 

[George Hester]

This is likely not a virus. You have had your ports scanned one was open to receive and so you received. The issue here is leading spaces in the folder. The fix is to remove all the contents of all the folders. Then you have to get the exact name of the folders that means the number of spaces.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q320081


Then working from the bottom up using the command prompt you use:

rd \\?\c:\path_to_file_that contains a trailing space.txt

intead of

del "\\?\c:\path_to_file_that contains a trailing space.txt "

 

[Noob23]

You got hacked. It sounds like somehow someone got into
your system through an open port and created these
folders. Hackers use folder names like these so that you
can't delete them.

It happened to me too (through an insecure FTProot
directory) and I still cannot figure out how to delete
them. I removed all the files inside and I'm still
searching for a way to delete the folders. They can't be
deleted because they are named with Win NT proprietary
system names like "Com" and the like.

First step is to close the port you were hacked from and
make sure your box is secure.

Good luck and if you find the answer to deleting them,
please let me know. Thanks.

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Gary Smith]

It happened to me too (through an insecure FTProot
directory) and I still cannot figure out how to delete
them. I removed all the files inside and I'm still
searching for a way to delete the folders. They can't be
deleted because they are named with Win NT proprietary
system names like "Com" and the like.

Maybe this will help:

From a command prompt try;

del \\.\Drive:\directory\filename
(Note the period between \\ and \)

Another alternative is:

del "\\?\Drive:\directory\filename"

Also,

dir /x
and try deleting them using their 8.3 short names.

The same techniques work for folders, substituting "RD" or "RD /s" for
"del".

 

[George Hester]

That's the answer Gary. Hopefully your explanation was clearer then mine.