AAARRGGH! Can't delete stupid folder!

Adrian Baker · 01-10-2007, 03:31 AM

Please help as this is driving me mad!

I have a Fat32 partition that is shared betwen XP and Suse as a common drive. All of my music files are on this drive. Recently a new folder on there copied from a flash drive became corrupt and I can't delete it! Unfortunately it is nearly 1GB in size containing loads of mp3 files.

Suse refused to delete it using the GUI, and XP did too. Eventually I managed to change its properties and name with XP, and then delete it. BUT it is still there in a new folder called recycled/nprotect I believe that this is a Norton protection, but this folder isn't visble in XP and wont delete in Suse.

In a terminal (as root) I've tried:

rm -Rf nprotect (as well as just rm or rm -f or rm -R)

but I get an error message saying it is read only and can't be deleted!

I have a broken Suse instal at the moment and I can't even re-install as Suse instal crashes as it can't resize or work with this partition. It used to do so quite happily until I had this folder there.

Please, how do I get rid of this folder!!!

b0uncer · 01-10-2007, 03:45 AM

It shouldn't be read-only on a FAT drive, if you have mounted the partition read-write. What about the file permissions?

Code:

ls -ld /path/to/this/directory/

Have you run fsck on the filesystem to see if it is corrupt, not just the directory.

carl0ski · 01-10-2007, 03:47 AM

Are you able to delete other folders on the Fat drive?

as root try

chown -R root:root Recycled
chmod -R 777 Recyled

hopefully this will change/strip the readonly flags
and try to delete again

rm -Rf nprotect\*

ps i'm pretty sure nprotect is a folder so you cant delete it using rm
rmdir --ignore-fail-on-nonempty nprotect

IndyGunFreak · 01-10-2007, 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adrian Baker

Please help as this is driving me mad!

I have a Fat32 partition that is shared betwen XP and Suse as a common drive. All of my music files are on this drive. Recently a new folder on there copied from a flash drive became corrupt and I can't delete it! Unfortunately it is nearly 1GB in size containing loads of mp3 files.

Suse refused to delete it using the GUI, and XP did too. Eventually I managed to change its properties and name with XP, and then delete it. BUT it is still there in a new folder called recycled/nprotect I believe that this is a Norton protection, but this folder isn't visble in XP and wont delete in Suse.

In a terminal (as root) I've tried:

rm -Rf nprotect (as well as just rm or rm -f or rm -R)

but I get an error message saying it is read only and can't be deleted!

I have a broken Suse instal at the moment and I can't even re-install as Suse instal crashes as it can't resize or work with this partition. It used to do so quite happily until I had this folder there.

Please, how do I get rid of this folder!!!

I've had a problem similar to this under Ubuntu, I simply used Nautilus (I don't know if thats on Suse or not)...

Open a Terminal
Sudo Nautilus (or however you initiate root commands under suse)
It then opened up a graphical file manager that had root access.
Navigate to the folder, Right Click, delete.

IGF

Adrian Baker · 01-10-2007, 04:17 AM

Some great advice here folks. I'll try some things suggested and get back to you.

Thanks. I'll keep you posted

pwc101 · 01-10-2007, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carl0ski

ps i'm pretty sure nprotect is a folder so you cant delete it using rm
rmdir --ignore-fail-on-nonempty nprotect

In my experience, using rm -r will delete a folder even if it has files/folders in it.

Sepero · 01-10-2007, 04:29 AM

I suggest following IndyGunFreak's advice.
Also, make sure the filesystem has been fsck'd (checked clean). AND that the filesystem isn't mounted read-only under Suse.

Adrian Baker · 01-10-2007, 04:52 AM

hmm... still no luck. Am I doing something wrong?

First check permissions:

Quote:

bsc-inoudijhtkc:/mnt/sharedisc # ls -ld /mnt/sharedisc/recycled
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 8192 2006-12-17 11:49 /mnt/sharedisc/recycled

tried rm again - no good

Tried rmdir - no good

Quote:

bsc-inoudijhtkc:/mnt/sharedisc # rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty recycled
bsc-inoudijhtkc:/mnt/sharedisc # ls
4.2 reports Dec '06.doc L6th tutor 1.doc
aaaaa.doc L6th tutor 2.doc
aaaatsts.odt Linux
aabbaabb.odt memo - dark roooooooom.odt
adrian minutes.doc
AHB groups Physics Resources
AS data handling recovered
AS Materials presentations recycled

It is still there!

deleting it with file manager as root also fails.

I haven't done checkdisc though. How exactly do I do this and what am I looking for?

Adrian Baker · 01-10-2007, 06:38 AM

I had a play with fsck. this is what happened;

Quote:

bsc-inoudijhtkc:/mnt/sharedisc # fsck
fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006)
reiserfsck 3.6.19 (2003 www.namesys.com)

*************************************************************
** If you are using the latest reiserfsprogs and it fails **
** please email bug reports to reiserfs-list@namesys.com, **
** providing as much information as possible -- your **
** hardware, kernel, patches, settings, all reiserfsck **
** messages (including version), the reiserfsck logfile, **
** check the syslog file for any related information. **
** If you would like advice on using this program, support **
** is available for $25 at www.namesys.com/support.html. **
*************************************************************

Will read-only check consistency of the filesystem on /dev/hda3
Will put log info to 'stdout'

Do you want to run this program?[N/Yes] (note need to type Yes if you do):yes
fsck.reiserfs /dev/hda3 failed (status 0x10). Run manually!
bsc-inoudijhtkc:/mnt/sharedisc #

Run manually???? I'm still puzzled! What can I try next?

timmeke · 01-10-2007, 08:47 AM

Please post the contents of /etc/fstab.

If you're /dev/hda3 is really the FAT partition, you shouldn't run reiserfsck on it. That's used for Reiser filesystems, not FAT ones.

Instead, try

Code:

fsck /dev/hda3

or

Code:

fsck.<fs_type> /dev/hda3

where <fs_type> should be replaced by the filesystem type indicated in /etc/fstab (ie "vfat", "msdos", ...).

And if it's really Norton that's preventing file access (altough I don't see how), try going into Windows, disabling the Norton utilities altogether and then retry the delete.

Adrian Baker · 01-10-2007, 09:47 AM

Hi there

OK, I made a silly mistake, sorry... my vfat shared file is hda5 not hda3

So I ran fsck as suggested:

Quote:

bsc-inoudijhtkc:/home/adrian # fsck /dev/hda5
fsck 1.39 (29-May-2006)
dosfsck 2.11, 12 Mar 2005, FAT32, LFN
There are differences between boot sector and its backup.
Differences: (offset

riginal/backup)
65:01/00
1) Copy original to backup
2) Copy backup to original
3) No action

So which option do I want??
Thanks for all the help by the way.

EDIT: Ignore this posting for now. I did option 3 and have found some problems. back in a minute or two.

Adrian Baker · 01-10-2007, 10:03 AM

I get 100+ error messages (one for each mp3) that looks like this:

Quote:

/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000048.MP3
File size is 4800679 bytes, cluster chain length is 0 bytes.
Truncating file to 0 bytes.
/iTunes music/Aerosmith/Armageddon/Sweet Emotion.mp3 and
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000049.MP3
share clusters.
1) Truncate first to 0 bytes
2) Truncate second to 3153920 bytes
? 2
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000049.MP3
File size is 3366706 bytes, cluster chain length is 0 bytes.
Truncating file to 0 bytes.
/iTunes music/Aerosmith/O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits/Aerosmith - Knocking On Heaven's Doo.mp3 and
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000050.MP3
share clusters.
1) Truncate first to 0 bytes
2) Truncate second to 1556480 bytes
? 2
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000050.MP3
File size is 1617600 bytes, cluster chain length is 0 bytes.
Truncating file to 0 bytes.
/iTunes music/Aerosmith/O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits/Aerosmith - Knocking On Heaven's Doo.mp3 and
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000051.MP3
share clusters.
1) Truncate first to 0 bytes
2) Truncate second to 3178496 bytes
? 2
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000051.MP3
File size is 1898897 bytes, cluster chain length is 0 bytes.
Truncating file to 0 bytes.
/iTunes music/Aerosmith/O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits/Aerosmith - Knocking On Heaven's Doo.mp3 and
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000052.MP3
share clusters.
1) Truncate first to 0 bytes
2) Truncate second to 5079040 bytes
? 2

After 100 or so files (i chose option 2 as you can see) i got:

Quote:

/iTunes music/Aretha Franklin/Aretha's Best/13 Chain Of Fools.m4a and
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000170.M4A
share clusters.
1) Truncate first to 0 bytes
2) Truncate second to 2424832 bytes
? 2
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000170.M4A
File size is 3089425 bytes, cluster chain length is 0 bytes.
Truncating file to 0 bytes.
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000172.M4A
Contains a free cluster (547623). Assuming EOF.
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000172.M4A
File size is 3485990 bytes, cluster chain length is 0 bytes.
Truncating file to 0 bytes.
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000183.MP3
File size is 6765582 bytes, cluster chain length is 2539520 bytes.
Truncating file to 2539520 bytes.
/System Volume Information/_restore{970BF179-4538-46F7-A171-F13CFC09440B}/RP156/change.log.4 and
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000187.MP3
share clusters.
1) Truncate first to 3170304 bytes
2) Truncate second to 8192 bytes
? 2
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000187.MP3
File size is 3719078 bytes, cluster chain length is 3170304 bytes.
Truncating file to 3170304 bytes.
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000183.MP3 and
/RECYCLED/NPROTECT/00000188.MP3
share clusters.
1) Truncate first to 0 bytes
2) Truncate second to 1933312 bytes
? 1
Internal error: didn't find cluster 459257 in chain starting at 393053
bsc-inoudijhtkc:/home/adrian #

So my disc is well messed up! This is definitely a Norton protection issue in windows (shouldn't ever use it should I?), but how do i sort this out?

I've emptied the Norton protected Trash can in windows.

nx5000 · 01-10-2007, 10:13 AM

Under windows, remove Norton and reformat the disk.
I had the same with a usb stick (without the norton part), all files were messed. Even with a lot of linux tools I didn't manage.
Reformating under windows corrected the problem.

Sepero · 01-10-2007, 06:31 PM

Run this on the filesystem under Linux:
fsck.vfat -a /dev/hda5

After it finishes, then try:
sudo rm -R /pathto/RECYCLED

Adrian Baker · 01-11-2007, 02:40 AM

Thank you all for your help. I've finally sorted it out. As nothing in Linux would delete this folder I backed up all the info on that drive and then rebooted in Windows. XP did a checkdisc routine and identified all kinds of problems that it tried to 'put-right'. I then disabled Norton and emptied everything (again) out of the recycle bin. I then deleted everything I could from that partition.

I then rebooted in Linux and this time I COULD remove the directory!

I have now reformatted the disc and re-installed Suse 10.2.

Thanks for all the help and advice. Much appreciated.