Win95 question.

[LiNuts]

I know that this is a Linux forum, but a friend of mine has an old p.c. with win95 on it, He has a file on his desktop (he says he didn't put it there) and he cannot get rid of it, every time he tries to delete it, it sys that the directory is to deep ??.

He has tried using deltree in DOS, and booting of a clean boot disk to try and get rid of it , Can anyone suggest a way of deleting it, without having to re-format the drive.

The file just seems to keep replicating itself as you delete .
Cheers
LiNuts

[nopun]

This is a technique I have come across before for getting rid of unwanted Microsoft stuff, maybe it will work in your case:

Create a new folder on the desktop.
Move the unwanted file into the new folder.
Delete the folder.

[[Mystik_Cool]]

Damn that's going to become a win forum here ! lol
Anyhow tell me if it worked, never useless to know... ! ;)

[YaRness]

replicating itself?

that's doesn't make any sense. what file is it, and exactly where is it?

[jintxo]

he could always install linux, mount the partition and do a rm -rf foldername ... ... ...

[[Mystik_Cool]]

he could always install linux, mount the partition and do a rm -rf foldername ... ... ...

Yeah that's a good idea but maybe a little bit too long, only to remove 1 file from his HD ! ;)

And, I'm interested to know what file it is and where it comes from too...

[ille_pugil42]

get one of the live "demo" cd's that boots to a live linux environ (like slack cd #2 of the boxed set)... then mount and then rm -rf...

otherwise, what's the name of the file?

[LiNuts]

Originally posted by YaRness:
<STRONG>replicating itself?

that's doesn't make any sense. what file is it, and exactly where is it?</STRONG>

The file is actually a folder on the desktop. it's called "William" The properties say it has 3 files and 43 folders, both he and I spent 30 min trying to descend into it. At about the halfway point, when you click on the folder to delete it, a message appears and says " Ha ha, you are trying to delete me, see if you can".
The Folder (dir) does nothing, its not affecting anything.

And i appologise for posting a Windows question, but having been a member of the LNO for some time, i thought i would take a bit of licence, and ask people who at least know what they are talking about, on how to get rid of it.

BTW, the p.c. is used for a local State Emergency Service, so to re-format would have to be a last option.
Cheers
LiNuts

[ille_pugil42]

that's not a normal windows error. I've personally created too many folders for windows to delete (via batch file) to see what would happen, but that sounds like a virus. Scan it for viruses...

[[Mystik_Cool]]

Yeah, certainly a virus, or at least this kind of little stuff driving you crazy ;)

Where did u find it or where does it come from ?

It would be interessant to know how this file has been created and how it works...

[YaRness]

now that i think about it, i HAVE done that (created umpteen deep folders and then not know what to do about the file 50000 layers down)... i forget how i fixed it, i think moving folders around or something.

[ille_pugil42]

when I did it, I had to move as far as I could down the directory tree. Move that folder to the desktop (or another folder), which then lessons the amount of dirs in a row, do that a few times and then delete it. But windows wouldn't come back with an error like above. Definitly viral.