[ale] "undeleteable" file

[mhirsch at nubridges.com (Michael D. Hirsch)]

On Wednesday 01 September 2004 10:22 am, Preston Boyington wrote:
> I have a file/folder on my usb drive that is corrupt.  In the file name
> there are squares/numbers/?/+ and other such junk.  I believe that when my
> friend was using the drive he unplugged it while a transfer was in progress
> or maybe his XP machine locked it up.
>
> My problem is this: I can't delete the file from Windows or Linux.  I
> booted to a Knoppix disk that I had and it barfed when I tried to delete
> the file (gave me a similar error message as Windows, actually).  What is
> the best way to remove this file from the drive?  Worst case I will remove
> all my good information and format it (8GB), but was hoping for a better
> way in case this should happen again.

Have you fscked the drive?  It sounds like it might be slightly corrupt.

Next, try using a good gui tool to delete the file.  There are too many ways 
to screw up trying to delete a file with funny characters in its name from 
the command line.  More gui tools that have been around for a while will 
avoid those pitfalls.

Michael