sfn20715@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (01/01/90)
I have a problem with the directory structure on my IBM's 20 Meg hard disk. In a subdirectory (\tp5\source), I find a copy of the root directory that acts just like a subdirectory i.e. when i delete files in the directory \tp5\source\games, the same file is deleted from \games. Because of this, programs like XTree, when looking for all of the files on disk will find \tp5\source and then \tp5\source\tp5\source\tp5\source\tp5\source (you get the idea), and then crash, proclaiming "too many files." I've tried to correct this, but like I say, trying to remove one of the "extra" directories removes it from the root directory. It appears that I will either have to 1) learn to live with it (the circularly linked files dont take up any extra space), or 2) learn to remove a non-empty directory (\tp5\source) without removing the root directory. One idea I have is that possibly DOS4.0 is causing this problem. Although I upgraded to 4.0 from 3.3 several months back, the problem has only recently surfaced. Doesn't 4.0 use larger FAT's that could collide with 3.0's? Perhaps I need to back up the drive and reformat with 4.0. Anyone think this would work? I suppose I could hide the \tp5\source directory but that would not really be stopping the problem in my opinion. Has anyone ever seen this before or have any good advice? BTW, I have RFTM and several other books, to no avail. Please dont tell me to do so again.
d88-eli@nada.kth.se (Erik Liljencrantz) (01/01/90)
In article <111700189@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> sfn20715@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes: >[...] Because of this, >programs like XTree, when looking for all of the files on disk will find >\tp5\source and then \tp5\source\tp5\source\tp5\source\tp5\source (you get >the idea), and then crash, proclaiming "too many files." I helped a friend at work with exactly this problem just a couple of days ago. CHKDSK will trap that recursiveness of the directorytree, and you are able to convert it to a file (use chkdsk /f). This file is probably empty and you can delete it. Chkdsk will also find lost clusters on the disk, which is also converted to files. This might be the case if your original directory (/tp5/source) contained any files. Check the manual for further information about chkdsk (I'm not saying RTFM! The information often is there, but it's often tricky to find with no clues...) -- Erik Liljencrantz | "No silly quotes!!" d88-eli@nada.kth.se | Embraquel D. Tuta
bcw@rti.UUCP (Bruce Wright) (01/02/90)
In article <2641@draken.nada.kth.se>, d88-eli@nada.kth.se (Erik Liljencrantz) writes: > In article <111700189@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> sfn20715@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > >[...] Because of this, > >programs like XTree, when looking for all of the files on disk will find > >\tp5\source and then \tp5\source\tp5\source\tp5\source\tp5\source (you get > >the idea), and then crash, proclaiming "too many files." > > I helped a friend at work with exactly this problem just a couple of days ago. > CHKDSK will trap that recursiveness of the directorytree, and you are able > to convert it to a file (use chkdsk /f). This file is probably empty and > you can delete it. Chkdsk will also find lost clusters on the disk, > which is also converted to files. This might be the case if your original > directory (/tp5/source) contained any files. I agree that this is probably the first thing you should do, if you haven't already done so. It's difficult over the net to know if a suggestion like this is too "obvious" ... and some people get offended if the advice is at too low or too high a level. Chkdsk (for those who are new to PC's) is well worth knowing about. However, there are a lot of types of corruption that it can't deal with very effectively. If you find that you can't deal with it with chkdsk, you might be able to fix the problem with either the Norton or the Mace utilities. The Norton Advanced Edition (which I am most familiar with) has a "Disk Doctor" program which is sort of like an enhanced chkdsk that can fix a LOT more problems than chkdsk. You can also (if you are reasonably knowledgeable -- and brave) fix problems that even the Disk Doctor can't fix by using the byte-level disk editor in the Norton Utilities. I have managed to recover a trashed root directory in this way (all directories and all files wiped from the root directory by a bug in a program ... no, not mine, and not one from a bbs ... a commercial product ... and not the infamous DOS FORMAT problem that allows you to easily wipe the root directory and the FAT for your hard disk). Even the "UNDELETE" function (which is a semiautomated version of this, and which is included in the utilities), didn't help recover the files -- things were too corrupted for UNDELETE to work [AAARRRGGGHHH!!!]. It's not very much fun to do this, but with those utilities it's *possible*, and if you know what you are doing not even terribly difficult, but *awfully* boring and time-consuming. Bruce C. Wright