I need a superdelete utility

[Houngan]

Folks,

I've got a customer that the crackers got a hold of, and placed one of those annoying all-space folders on his server so they could share warez. Anyone know of a good utility/method for deleting a folder with invalid characters? I've tried all the usual stuff, ownership, command prompt, rename, move, etc. Nothing works.

Thanks in advance,

H.

 

[evildave]

If Windows, you can't move, delete, etc. a file while it's currently being accessed by a process. Cheesy, lame and unforgivable, but true.

You must ascertain what process is using the folder, kill it, and then you can nuke the directory by highlighting it and pressing the 'Delete' key.

You may have to boot a CD, mount the drive and destroy it from there. Knoppix might do it.


If it's a linux/unix variant, then quote the text you wish to unlink.

rm -rf " "

Otherwise, move everything you want to keep to a different, parallel folder, then nuke the parent with the 'bad' folder.

"/blah/ack"
"/blah/ni"
"/blah/poo"
"/blah/ "

mkdir /foo
mv /blah/ack /foo
mv /blah/ni /foo
mv /blah/poo /foo
rm -rf /blah
mv /foo /blah

If you can't work out how many spaces, BASH will give you a hand.

Type...
rm -rf "
(Note the first space after the quote)
then hit tab to complete the directory name for you. Then hit 'Enter' and it will be gone.

You may have to log in as root to nuke the offending folder.

 

[LTC8K6]

Start in safe mode - command prompt only?

It might be spyware too. If so, it will probably just re-create the folder if you manage to delete it.

Maybe you need to run spybot and adaware?