Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!gatech!emory!platt
From: platt@emory.uucp (Dan Platt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Need help removing directory !
Keywords: RMDIR
Message-ID: <3134@emory.uucp>
Date: 17 Aug 88 01:54:49 GMT
References: <1027@pc.ecn.purdue.edu> <980@dsacg3.UUCP>
Reply-To: platt@emory.UUCP (Dan Platt)
Organization: Emory University
Lines: 30

In article <980@dsacg3.UUCP> nts0302@dsacg3.UUCP (Bob Fisher) writes:
>Do you have any hidden files that might be keeping rmdir from working ?
>
>-- 
>Bob Fisher (osu-cis!dsacg1!bfisher) 614-238-9071 (Autovon 850-9071)


I've encountered problems in removing directories under certain
circumstances.  What would happen would be that when I ran 
rmdir  I'd get a complaint that the directory wasn't valid,
or that the directory wasn't empty.  A list of the contents of the
directory revealed no files. 

I was able to delete the directory by doing a backup and restore of the
disk.  What I'd find in the directory would be a set of files called
DELETED.xxx where xxx was a number.   When I erased these files the
directory could be removed.  This problem only occured when the disk was
almost full.  I still don't know what mechanism caused the corruption.
Perhaps it was due in part to a great deal of fragmentation of the disk.
The painful exercize of backup/restore also produced the pleasant effect
of a great deal of access speed up.

I understand that there are disk-fixup utilities available which will
do the task for you without the backup/restore pain (they are called
disk optimizers).  I haven't purchased one; I got a bigger disk instead
(the old one was too small).  You might consider getting one.

I hope this is a help.

Dan Platt