Can't delete files w/ invalid names 3

[suncity]

I have some jpg files with invalid names in a folder.
WinXP/Pro edit/ delete won't delete them. DOS mode Run / del *.jpg says "invalid filename" (DUH! )
Can't even access them to change their name to something valid.

Any way of directly accessing these files and deleting them with some utility or special process?

Thanks!

 

[garebo]

Sorry, but i forgot, i thought you were dealing with obvious malware files.
But i believe i do know what you are dealing with when you mention the squares thing. It hasnt happened to me for a long long time. And this happens more when a person uses overlay software, but it also happens at other times.

I know exactly what you are talking about and i know for a fact that is has something to do with corruption. Im a bit fuzzy after that but i do think its corrupted files due to the drive being turned off while being written to, the computer turning on and off while being written to, things like that. Not saying you did it on purpose or anything like that. Sometimes power fluctuates and that can do it.
The reason, in my opinion, that that sort of thing hasnt happened to me in a long time is that i use a UPS. Im a firm believer in them and this could very well be a classic example of the need for a UPS. You see, most of the power (electrical) infrastructure was built long before computers came around to household and office use. As a result, the power at the wall is not really clean enough to run computers. It will work, mostly, but should there be a surge or even a very small brown-out or temporary loss of power, this is what you can get on your hard drive. Some brown-outs can happen so fast that you cant even see that it happened. And what about when you are away from your computer for a few minutes, can happen then too. And surge protectors, or at least a lot of them, just dont do the job each and every time and often they go bad without us even knowing it. They are there and it handles power but is the surge protector part of it actually still working?

Since this happened to this one hard drive only, my guess is it could be more like possibly the ide cable came loose enough so that the drive wasnt reading and writing properly
and the squares are a result of that.

Point is that there are many possible things that could have caused this.
Momentary power issues due to surges or brownouts or plain poor power at the wall.
Momentary loss of power due to loose connections, maybe even temporarily loose connection.
Malware of some sort, perhaps a virus
Few other things i cant think of at the moment.

In the end, i do believe its a loss of power issue.
I do reccommend that you get a UPS, even a low priced one will do the job, especially if it has a connection for phone protection as well. The higher priced units only give you more time and you only need enough time to power down the computer, so you dont really need a very expensive one, $100 or even less will do.

And the square, i dont think those are repairable. Im positive in saying that you would have to reformat to fix that problem. And i would suggest you do that anyway so that further files dont get messed up as well.

Thanks for all the info, i learned a lot in this thread.
Can you go over that trick you learned from bcastner?
thanks





Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

suncity, do you mind if i ask you or anyone else this question about the knoppix download?
What do you download? I clicked on the http section for the mirror England one, 6th from the bottom of the list. But on the next page, after accepting terms, then i get a list of maybe 50 files. Now some of them are greyed out, are those the ones i should download?
Thanks for your help on this, hope you dont mind.
It just seems very interesting and maybe helpful for system repair and getting files.
thanks


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[franklin97355]

Knoppix-latest version (3.7 or so).iso

 

[suncity]

I have a UPS, works well.
Four files have the little rectangle in the same folder. Same leading character, all in same folder -- too much pattern, unlikely to be random event like power.

To see bcastner's extreme windows procedure, just check previous posts in this thread. Use his (6/24/05 10:54), not mine with steps numbered since I mis-read Ctl-Alt-Shift as Ctl-Alt-Del.

If you figger it out, let me know what you did. I can't get past step 4.

 

[garebo]

There does seem to be 2 different versions 3.8.2 and 3.9.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[franklin97355]

Go for 3.9. There may also be a platform indicator you need to look for like i386 for PCs

 

[suncity]

See June 23 18:12 msg from MontyPalmer for which one to download. I had same question.

But Franklin97355 says to go for version 3.9. Sounds good to me!

Maybe I'll download again (version 3.9 if I didn't last time), and try Koppix. My hope is that version 3.9 will handle NTFS. My understanding is that earlier versions did not, so I did not pursue this approach any further. Sounds like a nice tool to have available if a FAT32 file in trouble.

Problem is, since Knoppix probably works at HDD physical level, it's not the kind of tool to blithely run and end up saying "Opppps!" when it scrambles my file indexes. It sounds like a tool for HDD brain surgery. So it will take all my guts to press that Enter key.

 

[bcastner]

For the odd deletion problem, see including the downloadable resources:

http://aumha.org/a/stubborn.htm

Forum member Jim Twine has a very good tool as well you might consider for special cases:

http://www.jrtwine.com/Products/DelFXPFiles/index.htm

(I admit the freeware version is hidden slightly, but it is there).

For clarification of "Extreme Windows", Kelly Theriot has a note along the same lines under D for Delete files and folders:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_d.htm

I keep getting the nagging notion that a chkdsk /f under Recovery Console is advised in this instance. I really think there is some corruption in the logical name and directory storage for this volume.

 

[garebo]

I am going to download the one iso file, v3.9 EN.ico 695.89 mb, that should be the right one.

I hate to say it, but i have never heard of anyone being able to do anything with these square named files, hope you do though!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[bcastner]

garebo,

You mean file names that have square little characters in them?

. The links I gave you above should allow you to delete any odd file, assuming the filestore is right and good;

. I am very worried what you are seeing with square little boxes is a rootkit infection. While rare, they do exist. If i felt that was the case, I would do a very, very clean intstall.

There are alternatives: do a Google on "xp root kit removers"

I honestly have not seen one to play with, but there are tools to allow a rename operation and then a simple Explorer delete. Personaly, I would throw up my hands, copy of my data, and clean install.

 

[garebo]

Bcastner

Thats just it, i dont think the filestore is right and good. These are files that got corrupted in one of the ways i have described above. I havent run into that for quite a while but i did years ago. I tried everything i could get my hands on, no go. Course things change over the years and you never know, but i think these files screw up pretty much everything and make the drive untenable as far as storing any files in the future. Like you said, best thing to do is throw ones hands up and do a clean reformat.
On the other hand, once you have tried all there is to try, a person can experiment a bit, no real harm done unless they do something crazy. Still, if one wants to use this drive with any chance of keeping data, its a reformat.

I honestly, truly believe the files got corrupted by some form of power loss\interruption in one form or another.
One of the reasons i have for saying that is i had that problem happen to me a few times in the past but that was before i started using UPS's on all my computers and monitors. Since then i have not had that problem and i stayed with win98 and fat32 longer than most people, so its not because of having moved to win xp. As far as i have ever seen or heard, I dont think the os has anything to do with it. I dont even think it matters if the drive is fat32 or NTFS, its a pure power issue.
To that end, and if i am right, then i guess one couldnt rule out the power supply, but i really dont see it as a problem created by a power supply, its the power at the wall this time, in my opinion. If not the power at the wall, then it could be an interruption of power caused by a defective cable or some such part, but not the power supply.
All of this is just my opinion, but i have had a bit of experience with those square files. And i dont ever recall anyone being able to fix those files, i sure have never been able to and wouldnt trust the drive until it was reformatted and checked over a bit, just to be on the safe side.








Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[suncity]

I was going to close matter in 25 Jun 05 22:40 msg above. But good ideas kept coming in!

Couldn't walk away from them, had to at least give them a hearing and maybe a try. Besides, it's been so educational.

I'm leaning toward clean reformat now.

Matter closed. (But I'm going to check out bcastner's last leads to see where they go). Curious George.

 

[garebo]

Out of curiosity, when you are done, please let us know if you were able to copy or rename any of those files with the squares in them. Dont feel too bad if you cant as i have never once seen a person able to.

But please let us know, it wont bother me to be wrong!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[bcastner]

...please let us know if you were able to copy or rename any of those files with the squares in them. Dont feel too bad if you cant as i have never once seen a person able to.

I love challenges.

I would begin with POSIX level commands:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320081

Follow with Forum Member Jim Twines freeware:

http://www.jrtwine.com/Products/DelFXPFiles/index.htm

If no joy, see the suggestions I made earlier:

http://aumha.org/a/stubborn.htm

If still no joy, there is a serious issue with the filestore. Use Recovery Console and do a chkdsk of the volume.

Now as to the final issue of removing squared boxes entries in the filestore, Forum member garebo must supply at least an incredible lunch. (Just kidding, though if I flew in to meet garebo he at least could offer a great lunch.) I would then use directly a filestore editing tool from Microsoft (It is discussed in a different context, but the tool is available:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;140060)

 

[suncity]

I'm downloading Knoppix 3.9 2005-05-27 now. Hoping it will have some indication that it handles NTFS. If it does not, I'll have a cool tool to play with next time I have a FAT32 system to diddle with.

If this doesn't work, I'll just go down the list in bcastner's 28 Jun 05 19:42 msg above. Who knows, maybe I'll "find some joy" !

Don't worry. If I get rid of those files, THE WORLD WILL KNOW !!!

 

[bcastner]

If you wanted to use a bootable Linux CD solution, may I suggest rather than Knoppix the "Ultimate Windows Boot CD" based on the Bart's PE. It is very strong on file utilities:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

 

[garebo]

bcasnter, if you flew into Windsor, I'd pick you up, i'd buy you lunch and i'd give you a place to stay while you were here! You've always been nice to me here. We do have this little difference in opinion about microsoft but i respect your position on that!

Like i said, i havent had one of those square files in a long, long time, nor had i heard of anyone being able to fix one. But, again, that was quite some time ago, so, as i said above, perhaps there are tools available to do that today that werent available back then. I hope so as suncity, if i recall, has some pics he wants badly.

Im gonna check out those links you provided, you always have to much info at your command, damn!!! Like a chipmunk with his mouth full, lol. jk. Seriously, you always come up with a ton of info.

I was gonna mention perhaps the great BartsPE or one of that type. I only started using the ultimate win boot cd recently and dont know it all that well. But when i saw knoppix mentioned i figured well maybe this has the ultimate boot cd all beat to hell and maybe there is something in knoppix that was known to take care of the problem suncity is having, so no use mentioning the ultimate boot cd.
Wrong again i see.
I still hope to hear from suncity after he tries out all the options, should keep him busy for a while. He likely cant do the drive any harm and may very well get some or all of his pics back, hope so, i dont mind being wrong!









Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[suncity]

The files with rectangular first character are jpg, but I do not want them. I haven't lost any files, including jpeg, at all. Just want to clean out these useless warts.

I created Knoppix 3.9 CD, viewed the FAQ, and found the following:

A: The general philosophy of KNOPPIX is to allow as little write access
as possible. For this reason, existing partitions are either not mounted
or only mounted "read only". If you click with your right mouse button on
an icon, the "read-only" attribute under item "device" can be un-checked.
After this, the partition can be mounted "read-write" (for already
mounted partitions, first click on "unmount"!). CAUTION: writing to NTFS
partitions can lead to data loss, since Linux does not really support this
file system! However, DOS and FAT32 file systems are safe for write access.
------------------
This confirms previous info from MontyPalmer 25 Jun 05 14:07 above. But I just thought the 5/27/05 version of Knoppix would handle NTFS. Sigh.

Now I work my way through bcastner's suggestions in his 28 Jun 05 19:42 msg above. Will start with Bart's PE.

Hey! Wait a minute! I thought I closed this #@&%$# project !!!

 

[suncity]

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!
Garbage files are gone!!!
Used Start Run chkdsk /f D: and the job was done. Seemed to clean out a lot of other crap too.

Special thanx to linney who suggested this back on 22 Jun 05 1:02 .

Many thanks to ALL. Now we can all get some sleep.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[linney]

If you had stopped posting at 22 Jun 05 1:02 we all would have missed out on a lot of other valuable information.

Who reads Linney's posts anyway! I don't blame you.