One specific folder freezes antivirus, spyware remover, everything

[Guest]

I've got one specific folder in My Music that I presume is infected, because
whenever I open My Music I get the "This program has encountered a problem
and needs to close" message instantly. My antivirus and spware remover both
stop responding when they get to this specific folder. But I can't delete
the folder, because as soon as I open My Music I get that message. How do I
get rid of it?
Computer otherwise runs normally, as long as I don't go into My Music, or
use anything that might go into it(like an antivirus for example).

 

[Malke]

I've got one specific folder in My Music that I presume is infected,
because whenever I open My Music I get the "This program has encountered a
problem
and needs to close" message instantly. My antivirus and spware remover
both
stop responding when they get to this specific folder. But I can't delete
the folder, because as soon as I open My Music I get that message. How do
I get rid of it?
Computer otherwise runs normally, as long as I don't go into My Music, or
use anything that might go into it(like an antivirus for example).

Start the computer in Safe Mode Command Prompt. Navigate to My Music and
delete the folder from the command line.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Could you please be more specific? This is not 'ordinary' Safe Mode I take it?

 

[Malke]

Could you please be more specific? This is not 'ordinary' Safe Mode I
take it?

Sure. Start the computer and as it is starting, repeatedly tap the F8 key.
This will bring you to a menu with various items, including Safe Mode. You
want to choose Safe Mode Command Prompt which is Safe Mode without
explorer.exe (the graphical user interface). XP will load and your whole
screen will be the command line.

You'll probably be somewhere like:

C:\Documents and Settings\your username >

If you want to see all the directories, type

dir [enter]

Then, assuming the folder in question is in My Music, you want to do:

cd \My Music [enter]

Now you should see:

C:\Documents and Settings\your username\My Music >

You can do a dir to see the exact name of the problematic folder if you
don't know it. Now do:

rmdir /s \bad directory [enter]

After you've finished and are back at the command line, you can either type
"exit" without the quotes or cd back to the root director of C:\ and type:

explorer.exe [enter]

which will start the graphical user interface. Restart the computer as
normal and allow it to go into Regular Mode.

Here's a link to a command line reference at Microsoft:

http://tinyurl.com/36leu

Go there and read through the information on using cd and rmdir first. You
might also want to read the information about del.

Malke

 

[Guest]

When I get to the part where I enter "cd\My Music" it says "the file or path
specified does not exist."

Could you please be more specific? This is not 'ordinary' Safe Mode I
take it?

Sure. Start the computer and as it is starting, repeatedly tap the F8 key.
This will bring you to a menu with various items, including Safe Mode. You
want to choose Safe Mode Command Prompt which is Safe Mode without
explorer.exe (the graphical user interface). XP will load and your whole
screen will be the command line.

You'll probably be somewhere like:

C:\Documents and Settings\your username >

If you want to see all the directories, type

dir [enter]

Then, assuming the folder in question is in My Music, you want to do:

cd \My Music [enter]

Now you should see:

C:\Documents and Settings\your username\My Music >

You can do a dir to see the exact name of the problematic folder if you
don't know it. Now do:

rmdir /s \bad directory [enter]

After you've finished and are back at the command line, you can either type
"exit" without the quotes or cd back to the root director of C:\ and type:

explorer.exe [enter]

which will start the graphical user interface. Restart the computer as
normal and allow it to go into Regular Mode.

Here's a link to a command line reference at Microsoft:

http://tinyurl.com/36leu

Go there and read through the information on using cd and rmdir first. You
might also want to read the information about del.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

 

[Joe Wright]

When I get to the part where I enter "cd\My Music" it says "the file or path
specified does not exist."

Could you please be more specific? This is not 'ordinary' Safe Mode I
take it?

Sure. Start the computer and as it is starting, repeatedly tap the F8 key.
This will bring you to a menu with various items, including Safe Mode. You
want to choose Safe Mode Command Prompt which is Safe Mode without
explorer.exe (the graphical user interface). XP will load and your whole
screen will be the command line.

You'll probably be somewhere like:

C:\Documents and Settings\your username >

If you want to see all the directories, type

dir [enter]

Then, assuming the folder in question is in My Music, you want to do:

cd \My Music [enter]

Now you should see:

C:\Documents and Settings\your username\My Music >

You can do a dir to see the exact name of the problematic folder if you
don't know it. Now do:

rmdir /s \bad directory [enter]

After you've finished and are back at the command line, you can either type
"exit" without the quotes or cd back to the root director of C:\ and type:

explorer.exe [enter]

which will start the graphical user interface. Restart the computer as
normal and allow it to go into Regular Mode.

Here's a link to a command line reference at Microsoft:

http://tinyurl.com/36leu

Go there and read through the information on using cd and rmdir first. You
might also want to read the information about del.

Is "My Music a subfolder of the current folder? If not, try this:

CD C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Music

or

CD "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Music"

or whatever the path to that folder on your system..