🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <14003@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> englandr@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Scott
 Englander) writes:
>In article <1990Feb6.213912.26834@ultra.com> rich@ultra.com (Rich Fall) writes
>>yang@mist.cs.orst.edu (Sherry Yang) writes:
>>
>>>We have discovered a folder on one of the MacIIs in our lab that has nothing
>>>in it, but it will not let us throw it away.  It kept coming back with a 
>>
>>My solution?  Use a backup program to save the hard disk, then reformat and
>>restore.  Some Mac hacker out there may know a better solution (and perhaps
>>why the problem occurs), but I don't.

Yes, this is a case of your directory sturcture being corrupted. The Folders
that Won't Die have a non-zero file count even though there aren't any files
in them. There is a way to fix this without entirely re-formatting.  You will
need to take a tool like FEdit or MacSnoop and set the count in the directory
to zero. If you're not familiar with the directory structure, play around with
a floppy first by making a folder or two, putting a known number of files in
each one, and then searching the disk for these values.

The easiest way to find the correct area on the disk is to search for the
folder name first, then look for the file count number. Once you get this
technique down on a floppy, just do the same thing for your undeletable folder
on your hard disk. You'll know the proper offset from the name field, so it
shouldn't be hard to find the right bytes. Remember what the original byte(s)
were that you changed, in case you screw up. Besides, you probably won't be
any worse off after the edit than before, given that the folder is trashed
already.

I've used this technique successfully many times.  After setting the file
count to zero, all were deletable. One word of caution. Make ABSOLUTELY
sure that there are no hidden (off the screen) or invisible files in the
folder before you set the count to zero.

It takes courage, but it is really not difficult.

julie zelenski
stanford university