Gremlins in my file system

[woody]

I have a kids folder which has another folder in that which has another folder in that. Are you following me yet? Anyway this particular folder wont allow access to it by anybody. Not the owner/creater, not the administrator of the domain, not the local administrator. You can't rename it, move it, delete it. When you go to properties, not all the tabs appear - you only get 'General', 'Customize', and 'NFS Sharing'. No security tab, so I can't take ownership of it.

 

Under General, it tells me it is zero k and contains no files or folders.

 

I even tried deleting / renameing it from the command prompt but no luck.

 

Definately gremlins. Can anyone tell me how to sort it?

[alan-d]

I had a similar thing happen the other day - deleting it directly at the server, without remoting to it worked.

 

I don't have a clue why though.

[IanB]

I think this is something that comes up from time to time, as our 'charges' experiment with the file system.

I had this problem when the full file name (drive:\path\file) exceeded the limit, which I think is 260 characters under ntfs. It is possible to create longer names, much longer if you dump a folder tree inside another one that is near the limit. But you can't then get at the lower folders again.

The fix I found was to use Subst to assign a drive letter to a folder near the bottom of the tree (on the server) which then gave me a shorter path through which I could get at the folders underneath and delete them.

 

subst /?

Associates a path with a drive letter.

 

SUBST [drive1: [drive2:]path]

SUBST drive1: /D

 

drive1: Specifies a virtual drive to which you want to assign a path.

[drive2:]path Specifies a physical drive and path you want to assign to

a virtual drive.

/D Deletes a substituted (virtual) drive.

 

Type SUBST with no parameters to display a list of current virtual drives.

 

Hope this is helpful

[ConTheITGuy]

Regarding not getting the Security tab. If you got to Tools - Folder Options - way down the bottom in a box to untick (or tick?) called enable simple file sharing - or something to that effect. Ticking (or unticking) that box should get your Security tab back. Saying that, I had one yesterday where it didn't!

 

Andy

[woody]

Thanks for swift reply

 

Alan.d - tried from server. Exaclty the same problem / symptoms

 

Ian.B - Tried that but it didn't work. The files names are not long at all.

 

andy - it's not this, I can see the security tab on all other folders surrounding this one so it's not a folder options thing.

 

I've just noticed a folder buried in one of the pupils other directories with the same name and the same problem. Something has gone wrong at some point here.

[StewartKnight]

is it not one of these annoying ones, where they try and create as many folders within a folder as possible?

 

I've had that, and windoze got it knickers in a twist!

 

Have you tried altering the permission from the childs folder, not from the 1st rogue folder, and inheriting the permssions to the sub-folder?

[NetworkGeezer]

Woody why not use SetACL. AJB recommended it a while back. This will allow you to assume ownership from the command line then it's just

RD /S /Q 

 

Has it caused any problems with backup. Normally the backup service account is a member of Domain Admins group.

[woody]

Woody why not use SetACL. AJB recommended it a while back. This will allow you to assume ownership from the command line then it's just

RD /S /Q 

 

Has it caused any problems with backup. Normally the backup service account is a member of Domain Admins group.

 

What would be the line for set acl?

[NetworkGeezer]

 setACL -rec cont_obj -actn setowner -ownr n:administrators -ot file -on   

 

SetACL is a 3rd party utility availible from sourceforge.net

There's a readme with all the options in the zip file.

[BradP.]

I've had similar problems happen when the file's short name got screwed up, and it seems to only happen in student directories for me as well. What are they doing, anyway?

 

Try this:

 

In command prompt, browse to the parent directory of the file or directory giving you the problem. Type dir /x. The x switch will show you the short name (e.g., vssdoc~1.doc). Then type del shortnameoffile.

 

That should get rid of it.

[Geoff]

I've fixed this previously by booting my Linux System Rescue CD and deleteing the problem file with that.

[woody]

Thanks BradP - tried that and it just tells me access is denied.

 

Here is the path on the server of the folder:

 

d:\documents\year04\[studentname]\my documents\[x] my stuff [x]\[x] picz [x]

 

I know the [x] make it look suspicious, but I'm not sure that is anything to do with it because right next to that folder is another one with the same type of filename and that's fine.

[woody]

I've fixed this previously by booting my Linux System Rescue CD and deleteing the problem file with that.

 

Thought you might have a Linux solution.

 

So you think I should boot up my NAS server running Microsoft Windows 2003 Appliance edition with a Linux System rescue CD?

 

Would that work?

[BradP.]

Try this:

 

Browse to the file in the command prompt.

DIR /X

REN stupidfileshortname test

DEL test

[woody]

Try this:

 

Browse to the file in the command prompt.

DIR /X

REN stupidfileshortname test

DEL test

 

Access is denied :angryfire:

[NetworkGeezer]

Erm what about just putting the path in quotes e.g.

"d:\documents\year04\[studentname]\my documents\[x] my stuff [x]\[x] picz [x]"

 

Alternatively why not CD into the rogue folder then RD /S/Q it's ass

[woody]

Erm what about just putting the path in quotes e.g.

"d:\documents\year04\[studentname]\my documents\[x] my stuff [x]\[x] picz [x]"

 

Alternatively why not CD into the rogue folder then RD /S/Q it's ass

 

The folder won't let me anywhere near it. I just get Access Denied all the time.

[NetworkGeezer]

Have you taken over ownership and given yourself full rights over it?

[DMcCoy]

Did you actually try the shortname? Using move C:\path\to\file\thisisin~1 etc? I've not found any file I can't sort out with the short names. As other have mentioned, take ownership of the files and folders and make sure it does the same on sub folders and files. Also make sure you are using cmd not command.com (well you never know )

[woody]

NetworkGeezer and DMcCoy: thanks for advice but please read from beginning of thread. I can't take ownership because I don't get the security tab when I look at the properties of the folder. All I get is 'General', 'Customize' and 'NFS sharing'. And I have tried shortname. Every time I try to perform any action on the folder, whether to access it, rename it or delete it, I just get Access Denied, in Windows or from the command promt.

 

If this were a client, I would probably take the HD out and boot it up as slave in another pc. But this is our NAS server which actively holds all of our documents for staff and pupils.

 

At least this isn't a big problem at the moment. It's not stopping the pupils doing any work and I don't think they have anything in the folder they are in desperate need of. I'm on holiday next week so might come back to this then.

[BradP.]

What about taking ownership of its parent and checking the "Replace owner on subcontainers" box? Maybe Windows is smart enough to propagate it.

[DMcCoy]

You will have to take ownership *above* the folder, it is invalid after all

[DMcCoy]

NAS? Is it real windows or samba on linux?

[woody]

Windows Server 2003 Appliance edition

[DMcCoy]

Are you trying this from a remote machine, or does it have an rdp interface?